110 FECUNDATION OF ANTS. 
germs are fecundated. Their history is 
closely connected with the history of ant- 
hills, and embraces several curious, and 
hitherto unknown, particulars. Let us at 
first pass in review those authors who 
have treated of it. 
Swammerdam, to whom we are indebt- 
ed for many excellent memoirs on the 
metamorphoses of insects, and who was 
one of the first to point out those which 
ants undergo, had never seen among them 
any winged females; he, however, de- 
scribes some of the species; he speaks of 
the males being provided with four wings, 
and mentions several facts in their history. 
Geofiry has witnessed wings upon females, 
but he denies their ever being deprived 
of them. - There are individuals who 
still believe, as in the time of antiquity, 
that ants, at a certain age, acquire wings. 
Linnzeus, De Geer, Latreille, and other 
modern naturalists, agree in stating, that 
the females of ants have wings, as well 
as the males, and that in a little time 
after copulation, some are seen destitute 
of these organs. ‘This observation, re- 
