364 CLASS .VIII. 
over the ground, often a hundred feet long, which all end like rays 
at the dwelling, the ants pass to and fro; irregular and tortuous 
passages lead to the separate habitation of the future generation. 
All the labour of building, of nursing and feeding the larve &e. is 
discharged by the neuters. They live on fruits, insects and their 
larvee, on dead birds and small mammals. They are very fond of 
sugar, and follow the plant-lice in order to swallow the sweet sap (the 
honey-dew) that drops from their body. They lay up no provision 
for winter, as far at least as relates to our native species, but pass 
the winter in a state of torpor, taking no food at all in the severest 
cold. The working ants bear the larvee and nymphs with the great- 
est care between their jaws to the surface when the sun shines on 
their dwelling, and down again when rain falls on the earth, and 
they defend with incredible courage the commonwealth which has 
no other government but a true republic. The larve and pupe are 
commonly taken for eggs by the uninformed, and serve for food for 
certain singing birds in cages: nightingales especially are fond of 
them. In the last days of summer (August), in warm clear weather, 
the winged males and female leave the nest in which they have 
been brought up, fly in swarms through the air, copulate, and die 
soon afterwards, being swallowed by birds, or drowned in water 
and made food for fishes. The females that are left divest them- 
selves with their feet of the wings that are now useless, and found 
a new colony ; working ants, in whose neighbourhood they chance 
to be, drag them to their nest to lay their eggs there; when that is 
accomplished they are driven without mercy from the nest. 
Comp. on Ants: 
SwAMMERDAM, Bibel der nat. bl. 287—299; Cu. DE GEER, /ns. XVIITitme 
Mém. UU. pp. 1042—1107; Bonnet, Contempl. de la Nature, Partie xt. 
chap. 22, @uvr. compl. 8vo, 1x. pp. 89—98 ; KirBy and Spence, Jntrod. 
to Entom. 1. pp. 479—484; Il. pp. 45—106; OxeEn, Allgem. Naturgesch. 
Vol. 2, 1835, pp. 895—945. 
LaAtTREILLE, Hist. nat. des Fowrmis, 1 Vol. 8vo, av. fig. Paris, r802. 
P. Huser, Recherches sur les mewrs des Fourmis indigenes, 1 Vol. 8vo, 
av. fig. Paris et Genéve, 1810. 
Lunp, Sur les habitudes de quelques Fourmis du Bresil. Ann. des Sc. nat. 
XXIII. 1831, pp. 113—138. 
A. Petiole of abdomen composed of two distinct nodes. Females 
and neuters furnished with sting. 
Myrmica LAtTR. (with addition of other genera). 
Sub-genus: Atéa Fasr., Larr., Maxillary palps short, with five 
joints or fewer. 
