ANTS, 5 
catastrophe could not have been foreseen, and also though 
there is apparently no ant in the position of general or 
' director to co-ordinate their several movements. It is very 
wonderful, when one comes to think of it; like much else 
that ants and other social hymenoptera do. After a time 
the last of the young ones has been carried into a place of 
safety, and then the observer, who has been the unwitting 
cause of so much anxiety to the tiny household, will, of 
course, put back the stone into its former position, so that 
when the ants find the roof again over their heads they may 
return and put their place in order, and go on with their 
household duties as before. 
Very many books have been written about ants, and 
there will probably be a considerable number more before 
our knowledge of many points in both their life-history and 
their habits in general are accurately known. Some of the 
lacune in our knowledge will be referred to as this Address 
proceeds; but as, upon several other points, the facts appear 
to be tolerably well known, it may be as well to present 
these in something like a connected form, so that this 
article may serve, for the time being, as an ant biography. 
In doing this, the fact will not be lost sight of that the 
habits, and perhaps also the life-history, of no two species 
of ants are exactly alike. Between some, indeed, the 
differences in this respect are very considerable. Still, 
there is much that is common to the species belonging to 
many different genera, and it is these common features 
which are referred to here. 
Ants belong to the Order Hymenoptera, which includes 
the Bees, Wasps, Sawflies, Gallflies, Ichneumons, and some 
others. Mr Grimshaw tells me that 31,000 species of 
Hymenoptera are known, and that of these, 3000 have been 
recorded as British. There are about 1000 species of Ants 
known in different parts of the world, and we have about 
thirty of these as natives of Britain, with a few more here 
which have made this their home after being accidentally 
brought in from foreign countries. A list of the British 
Ants, with descriptions of the species, will be found in the 
Rev. W. Farren White’s Ants and their Ways, Appendix, 
