106 FECUNDATION OF ANTS. 
sions are completed, and whose impreg- 
nation has taken place before us, recalled 
to the ant-hill, by an instinctive impulse, 
would return to increase the population 
of their nest ; that the males, now use- 
less, after consuming a part of the pro- 
visions of the large family of which they 
are members, would experience the cruel 
fate attending those of bees, and that 
the females would commit their eggs to 
the charge of the same individuals who 
protected them in their infancy. Seve- 
ral authors entertain this opinion, (among 
others De Geer) ; but they advance no- 
thing in support of it. It will be there- 
fore expedient to discuss the question 
which naturally arises from these facts. 
The male and female ants, when they 
take a long flight from the ant-hill, do 
not show that singular instinct which 
guides bees, wasps, and other insects, in 
again finding their habitation. This in- 
stinct consists, in their knowing how to 
move in every direction around their 
abode, without straggling, in order to 
examine its position, and the several 
