XXXVI INTRODUCTION. 
the history of ants, we find naturalists of 
the greatest celebrity. 
Leeuwenhoeck is the first who seri- 
ously attended to the metamorphoses of 
ants, and proved that what had been 
hitherto regarded as their eggs were the 
real larvee ; indeed from their magnitude 
this should have been previously known, 
the eggs of these insects being exceed- 
ingly minute. 
Swammerdam confirms, by profound 
researches and admirable descriptions, 
the observations published by his prede- 
cessor : — he notices the several changes 
ants undergo, and shows the pupa to be 
the same individual that under the form 
of larva possessed neither limbs nor any 
distinct features. He points out the dis- 
tinction between the males and females, 
which, he says, are furnished with wings, 
and remarks, that the common ants are 
jJabourers or neuters, as obtains in bees. 
He also describes some of the domestic 
occupations in which ants are engaged, 
and informs us, that the larvae of some 
