FECUNDATION OF ANTS. 135 
latter bestow upon them, I shall enter 
into some details which will sufficiently 
prove their instinct. 
Stopping, one day, near one of those 
bands of ants, who were advancing in 
file, I saw a female carried by a labourer, 
hanging to, and suspended by its man- 
dibles ; their teeth were crossed, and the 
body of. the female was rolled up, like 
the trunk of a butterfly. It seems a 
matter of astonishment that a labourer 
should carry a female; but the latter 
possesses the art of rolling herself up 
into so small a compass, as not to re- 
strain the movements of the former. We 
are fully aware that the strength of ants 
is not proportioned to their diminutive- 
ness. I seized the female and its com- 
panion, and found them to be of the spe- 
cies of Fallow Ants. Having placedthem 
immediately in liberty, in the midst of 
their companions, several surrounded the 
female, and caressed her with their an- 
tenne. At length one of the labourers, 
after giving her several gentle blows with 
