msECTS. 123 



We now enter npon the examination of those insect tribes 

 which congi'egate into large and well-regulated communities, 

 and in which new powers and instincts are developed. Among 

 these are the Ants, in which we mark, with wonder and 

 admiration, 



-" The intelligence that makes 



The tiny creatures strong by social league, 

 Supports the generations, multiplies 

 Tlieir tribes, till we behold a spacious plain, 

 Or grassy bottom, all with little hills, 

 Tlicir labour, cover'd as a lake with waves; 

 Thousands of cities in the desert place 

 Built up of life, and food, and means of life!" 



Wordsworth. 



It may seem strange that the little, busy, wingless creatures, 

 that we see foraging about oar fields and gardens, with 

 ceaseless activity, should be mentioned among insects having 

 four membranous wings. But, if an ant's nest be examined 

 towards the end of summer, numbers of them will then be 

 found possessed of these appendages. They are young Ants, 

 just hberated from the cocoon. The males and females rise 

 together into the air; the males soon perish: some of the 

 females return to their original home, and others, casting their 

 wings aside, become the solitary founders of industrious and 

 populous cities. On the neuters devolve the erection of the 

 store-houses, the making of the highways, the nursing of the 

 young grubs, the catering for all, and many other ofiices 

 essential to the well-being of the community. For an account 

 of their labours, their sports, their wars, their ingenious 

 devices, their slave-taking expeditions, and their modes of 

 communicating information, we refer to Kirby and Spence's 

 deliglitfid Introduction to Entomology, in which the most 

 interesting observations of Gould, Huber, and many other 

 naturaUsts, have been embodied. 



The celebrated honey-dew of the poets is, now found to be 

 a saccharine secretion, deposited by many species of aphides 

 or plant-lice. Of this the ants are passionately fond, not only 

 sucking it with avidity whenever it can be obtained, but, in 

 some cases, shutting up the aphides in apartments constnicted 

 specially for the purpose, and tending them with as much 

 assiduity as we would bestow on our mQch cattle.* It is a 



* Kirby and Spence, vol. ii. page 90. 



