FECUNDATION OF ANTS. 109 
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ovipositors (tariéres). The several arts 
we remark among the greater number of 
bees and wasps, ichneumons and tenthre- 
dines, &c. are exercised by the females 
alone, or by the labourers, their repre- 
sentatives. The defence of the nest is 
also confided to them: the males, after 
attending to the office of reproduction, 
become useless to the family of which 
they are members. ‘The life of male ants 
cannot be of long duration ; deprived of 
their attendants, incapable of providing 
their own subsistence, and returning no 
more to the ant-hill that gave them birth, 
how can it possibly be of any long con- 
tinuance? Their life is either naturally 
limited to a few weeks, or bunger will 
speedily terminate it: whatever it be, 
' they disappear in a little time after the 
period of their amours; but they never 
fall victims, as happens with bees, to the 
fury of the labourers. 
At the period when the career of 
males is terminated, that of the females 
is scarcely commenced: they bear the 
germs of future generations, and these 
