PREFACE, 
BY THE AUTHOR. 
Mucu has been written upon Ants: 
their form of government, and their la- 
bours, excited the admiration of the 
ancients equally with the moderns; but it 
is only in the present day that just ob- 
servations have taken place of the fabu- 
lous recitals of Pliny and Aristotle. 
The Naturalists of the last century at- 
tended to their transformations, disco- 
vered the sexes, and cleared up many 
essential points of their history. Learn- 
ed anatomists, also, described their or- 
gans, classed the different kinds of 
Ants, and pointed out their generic 
characters. 
