FECUNDATION OF ANTS. 121 
and the need of putting in use all their 
faculties, become industrious, and take 
care of their little ones with the same 
sedulous attention as the common la- 
bourers. | 
I enclosed several pregnant females in 
a vessel full of light humid earth, with 
which they constructed lodges, where 
they resided ; some singly, others in com- 
mon. They laid their eggs and took 
great care of them; and, notwithstanding 
the inconvenience of not being able to 
vary the temperature of their habitation, 
they reared some, which became larve, of 
a tolerable size, but which soon perished 
from the effect of my own negligence. 
I afterwards placed some other females 
in a similar apparatus, and delivered to 
them some pup (labourers), to ascertain 
if their instinct would teach them 
to open the covering in which they 
were enclosed. Although these females 
were virgins, and provided with wings, 
they laboured so well, that I found, on 
the following morning, three workers 
G 
