HYMENOPTERA.— FORMICID#. 933 
the size of the nest, provisioning the young, &c., whilst the Amazon 
ants are completely free from these duties. St. Fargeau, indeed, sees 
in the proceedings of these insects the perfection of instinct}; as- 
serting that the Amazon ant is able to perform all the requisite labours 
itself, but, froma love of luxurious idleness, it adopts a plan for having 
them performed by slaves. But Huber, who discovered and closely 
studied the details of their history, expressly tells us that the Ama- 
zons ‘‘n’ont dautre occupation et d’autre talent que celui de la 
guerre” (Réch. Fowm. p. 234.) ; and in a subsequent page he relates 
an experiment, in which the greater part of a number of Amazons, 
placed in a glass case with their pupz, died from want; but that a 
single F. fusca introduced into the case restored order, preserved the 
lives of the remainder, and raised anumber of the young brood. Thus 
these Amazon ants ought, to a great extent, to be considered as ana- 
logous to the parasite bees, &c.; and if the habitudes morales of the 
Hymenoptera are to be considered as of primary importance in the 
distribution of the order, these Amazons ought surely to be removed 
from the working species. 
Huber also discovered that a species of Formica (F. sanguinea), 
which Stephens gives as a species found near London, larger than the 
Polyergus rufescens, makes slaves of the same two species as the lat- 
ter: unlike them, however, they share the labours of the nest with 
their slaves; and it would even seem that both species of slaves are 
met with in the ant hills of the sanguine ants; and Huber even 
brought up Polyergus rufescens and Formica sanguinea, which are 
both slave-makers, with F. fusca, in one common dwelling. 
M. Lund also observed a Brazilian species of Myrmica (M. paleata 
Latr.), which was assisted in the affairs of its nest by the neuters of 
another species of the same genus (M. erythrothorax Lund). He 
also discovered a thick column of another species, forming a new 
genus (Ancylognathus lugubris Z.), loaded with the larvae and pupze 
of ants, and which he considered as a party returning from a maraud- 

sight appear lamentable; but when we recollect that these slaves have been born 
in this state, without knowing any thing of a different state —that of freedom; 
that they toil not more laboriously for their masters than they would do for 
their own relatives if they were free; that they suffer no privations of repose or 
food; that they are even permitted to watch over the rearing of some of their 
own community ; and, moreover, that the state of society dependent upon the 
structural peculiarities of the Polyergus requires their presence in the nests of the 
latter, —we are induced to hesitate before we exclaim with Sterne —“ Still slavery ; 
thou art a bitter draught.” 
