HYMENOPTERA — FORMICIDA. 229 
limbs from their sheaths, its wings extend, its colours become darker, 
and in a very short time it assumes all the characters of the imago. 
It would be impossible, and indeed out of place, in a work like the 
present, to enter into the details of the history, manners, and economy 
of these tribes, which vary in almost every species, and of which so. 
much has been written. Those who would learn the details of these 
interesting subjects should consult the admirable memoir of Huber, 
the monograph of Latreille, or the second volume of the Jntroduction 
to Entomology, in which the greater portion of the seventeenth letter 
is devoted to this family. Herein, and in other general works, such 
as those of St. Fargeau, De Geer, &c. (Ray, in his Philosophical Let- 
ters, has also given many interesting details relative to the habits of 
these insects), we find detailed accounts relative to the swarming of 
the sexes ; the duties of the impregnated females ; the various labours 
of the neuters ; the language, or mode of communicating the knowledge 
of various facts amongst the latter ; their wars and combats*; the 
exceeding fondness of ants for the saccharine fluid emitted by the 
Aphides and Cocci, termed honey dew; and the pains which they 
take in securing it, by regularly milking the Aphides+, which they 
even imprison in their nests ; the emigrations of their surplus popu- 
lation ; the attempts of the latter, when established in their new ha- 
bitations, to induce others to join them; their nocturnal labours (and 
* These wars generally take place between the newter's of the same species inha- 
biting nests near each other, the individuals from each distinguishing, by some 
strange instinct their own companions; but occasionally between neuters of different 
species. ‘T. W. Bond, however, asserts, that a battle lasting an entire day was 
observed between winged ants flying in the air, one army consisting of black and 
the other of red ants. (Ent. Mag. vol. iy. p. 221.) I apprehend, however, that 
this was only the ordinary swarming of a nest for the union of the sexes. (And see 
Mag. Nat. Hist. No. 18.; and Hanhart, loc.. cit. supra, translated in Time's 
Telescope, 1829, p. 111.) 
+ Huber has particularly described the mode in which this is performed, observing 
that during the autumn and spring months many species of ants keep a brood of 
Aphides in their nests, guarding the eggs of the Aphides with the greatest care. 
(See also Gen. Hardwicke, in Zool. Journ. No. 13., “On the Loves of the Ants 
and Aphides,” and Mag. Nat. Hist. No. 12. May 1830.) ‘Their fondness for sweets 
of every kind is indeed well known, and Col. Sykes has given a remarkable case of 
instinet, in which an Indian species ( I’. indefessa Sykes), contrived to make its way to 
a sideboard of sweets by swimming over the water in which the legs of the table 
were immersed, and even leaping from the wall upon the table. ~( Trans. Ent. Soc. 
vol. i.) See further Drury’s account of the ravages of ants in tropical climates, 
especially upon saccharine matters, chiefly from information given to him by 
_Smeathman. (Iilustr. Lxot, Ent. vol. ii. p. 80. 2nd edit. ) 
Q 3 
