182 WARS OF ANTS. 
animals, while the beetle and caterpillar 
are the largest insects upon which the 
ants of Europe make war: they will, 
however, dissect very neatly lizards, and 
other dead animals. Ants make their 
attack openly; cunning is not in the 
number of their arms; those of which 
they make use, are the same pincers they 
employ for carrying the materials of their 
nests, a sting resembling that of bees, and 
the venom which accompanies it, an acid 
liquor contained in their abdomen, which 
produces a slight irritation on the skin. 
These arms, as before stated, are only 
possessed by the females and workers, to 
whom nature has confided the several in- 
terests of the colony. The males take 
no part in its preservation, except in the 
reproduction of the species. ‘The fe- 
males, doubtless too valuable to allow of 
their exposing their lives, always make 
their escape on the slightest danger. 
The workers are those only destined to 
defend their habitation. 
Several species are unprovided with a 
