PCUFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 127 



first segment is longer than any of the succeeding ones, 

 and covered above with rather long hairs. The second 

 and third dorsal segments are apparently naked ; but 

 under a triple lens, in a certain light, some adpressed 

 hairs may be perceived ; — the remaining ones are hairy, 

 the three last being- inflexed. The ventral segments 

 are very narrow, hairy, and fulvous. 



There are two descriptions of males — one not bigger 

 than the workers, supposed to be produced from a male 

 egg" laid in a worker's cell. The common males are 

 much larger, and will counterpoise two workers. 



Need I describe to you the workers that pass so fre- 

 quently before your eyes, and which you think you 

 know wherever you see them ? Were it my sole object 

 that you should know them at sight, this might not be 

 necessary ; but as I wish, for a reason I shall soon as- 

 sign, to direct your attention to those differences of 

 form, clothing, and colour, which distinguish them from 

 the females, this will not be a lost labour. 



The bodj/ of these creatures is oblong. 



The head triangular. The mandibles are prominent, 

 so as to terminate the head in an angle, toothless and 

 forcipate. The tongue and maxUlce are long and in- 

 curved : the hihriim and antcnnce black. 



In the trunk the tegulce are black. The zi'ings ex- 

 tend only to the apex of the fourth segment of the ab* 

 domen. The legs are all black, with the digits only 

 rather piceous. The posterior tibice are naked above, 

 exteriorly longitudinally concave, and interiorly lon- 

 gitudinally convex ; furnished with lateral and recum- 

 bent hairs to form the corbicula, and armed at the end 

 with the pecten. The upper surface of the posterior 



