II* 



ANT. 



attention from the vartimt ago*, on account cif 

 and extraordinary industry manifested by Uie 

 ihf preaant article we shall confine ourselves to . 



1 the singular eoouoiny 

 the different species. ID 



Uie prwent article we shall confine ourselves to n brief but methodical 

 outline of their natural history. In tracing the hi.ti.iry f mcwt insects, 

 it U beat, perhaps, to begin with the eggs ; but in the owe of the ant, 

 the laying and hatching of the egg* could not be well understood 

 without an acquaintance with their JngnUr manner of (miring, with 

 which, therefore, we shall begin. 



1'airauj iff Ant*. It may be necessary to premise here, that, similar 

 to bean, a community of anta, whatever the species may be, consists of 

 male*, which have always four wings ; of female*, much larger in sixe 

 than the males, which only possess wings during the pairing season ; 

 and of a sort of barren females, which have been variously termed 

 neuters, workers, or nuns-ante, and which, so far as we know, have 

 never been observed to have wings in any stage of their existence. 



If an ant-hill be examined any time after midsummer up to the 

 close of autumn, there may be seen, mixed with the wingless workers, 

 a number of both males and female* furnished with white glistening 

 wings. These however are neither kings nor queens in the state, at 

 least so far as freedom of action is concerned, for they are not allowed 

 to move without a guard of workers to prevent their leaving the 

 boundaries, and if one straggles away unawares, it is for the most part 

 dragged back by the vigilant sentinels, three or four of whom may, in 

 such rases, be seen hauling along a single deserter by the wings and 

 limbs. The workers, so far from ever facilitating the exit, much leas 

 the departure of the winged ones, more particularly the females, guard 

 them most assiduously in order to prevent it ; and are only forced to 

 acquiesce in it when Uie winged ones become too numerous either to 

 be guarded or fed. There seems indeed to be a uniform disposition 

 in the winged ones to desert their native colony : and as they never 

 return after pairing, it would soon become depopulated in the absence 

 of females. The actual pairing does not seem to take place within the 

 ant-hill, and we have observed scouts posted all around, ready to 

 discover and carry back to the colony as many fertile females as they 

 could meet with. Nay, we are quite certain that whole colonies have 

 been thus dispersed ; and when they did not find fertile females near 

 their encampment, they have gone farther and farther till they found 

 them, and, if they had gone very far, never returned, but commenced 

 a number of new establishments, according to their convenience. It 

 is probable that, soon after pairing, the males die, as do the males of 

 bees and other insects ; for, as the workers never bring any of them 

 back, nor take any notice of them after leaving the ant-hill, they must 

 periiih, being entirely defenceless, and destitute both of a stiiig and 

 of mandibles to provide for their subsistence. The subsequent proceed- 

 ings of the females are very different, and of curious interest. It was 

 supposed by the ancients that all arfts, at a certain age, acquired wings; 

 but it was reserved for the younger Huber, in particular, by means of 

 his artificial formicaries, to trace the development of the wings in the 

 female from the first commencement, till he saw them stripped off and 

 laid aside like cast clothes. 



This curious process, which was first hinted at by Gould in his 

 interesting account of ' English Ants,' we have repeatedly witnessed 

 the females extending their wings, bringing them over their heads, 

 crossing them in every direction, and throwing them from" side to side, 

 till at length they are disjointed from the .body and fall off. 



Foundation of Colonies. Some of the females are, after pairing, 

 usually captured by the working anta, and conducted back to the 

 parent community ; and others are laid hold of by. straggling parties 

 of from two to a dozen workers, who do not return to the jun i;t 

 community, but commence small colonies on their own account. This 

 explains the common occurrence of a great number of small colonies 

 being formed in the immediate vicinity of each other, while sometimes 

 the parent community is thereby quite broken up, and the hill deserted. 

 This happens frequently in the case of the Red Ant (Myrmica rubra.) 

 and the Ash-Coloured Ant (Formica fusca), both very common species 

 in fields and gardens. In the case of the Yellow Ant (F. Jlava) again, 

 and the Wood- Ant (P. rufa), this rarely occurs, the parent community 

 often remaining in the same spot for years together. 



When a female, after pairing, does not chance to fall in with any 

 scouting parties of workers, she proceeds without their assistance to 

 f.und a colony herself in the same manner as is always done by the 

 females of the social wasps and humble-bees every spring. We have 

 repeatedly verified this fact, both by confining a single female after 

 pairing, and witnessing her proceedings, and by discovering in the 

 fields single females occupied in laying the foundations of a future city 

 for their progeny. We have met with these single females when they 

 have just begun to form the first cell for the reception of their eggs ; 

 when the eggs have just been laid ; when the eggs have been hatched ; 

 and also when a few workers had been reared to assist in the common 

 labours. 



Contrary to what takes place in most insects, the eggs of ants are 

 not, when laid, glued to any fixed place, but are found in parcels of 

 half a dozen or more loosely attached, so that they can be removed at 

 pleasure during the hatching. It has been shown in the ' Penny 

 Magazine' (yoL L, p. 60), by a series of minute observations, that thu 

 female earwig mores her eggs with the utmost care from a place which 

 she judges too dry, to one which is sufficiently moist ; and in the lame 

 way the female ant, when she founds a colony without assistance, or 



ANT. 



the nurae-anU in a community, change the situation of the egga 

 according to the state of the weather or of tho day- and nighta 

 circumstance first observed by Dr. King in the reign of King Charles II. 

 Heat being indispensable to their successful hatching, Uie eggs are 

 carefully placed during the day near the surface of the ant-hill, hut 

 so sheltered from the direct influence of the sun as to prevent the too 

 rapid evaporation of their moisture. During the night, or in cold 

 weather, the egga are not placed so high, to prevent the escape of the 

 heat which they naturally pomes*. Tho attention to the state of 

 temperature occupies much of tho assiduity of the female and the 

 nurse-auto. 



When the eggs are at length hatched (and during this process we 

 have already seen that they enlarge in size), the young grubs are 

 similarly treated with respect to temperature, but greater care . 

 taken to preserve them from too great heat, which might prove more 

 injurious than before hutching. 



The grubs are fed by the nurse-ants when any of these are in the 

 colony, and by the mother when she is alone, by a liquid dip. 

 from the stomach, as is done in a similar way by wasps, humble-bees, 

 pigeons, and canary birds. It consequenUy requires little industry 

 on- tho part of a solitary female to procure for herself sufficient food 

 to supply nutriment for a brood of perhaps a dozen or twenty grubs, 

 which are insatiably voracious. 



\Vlien thu grubs are full grown they spin for themselves cocoons of 

 a membranous texture, and of a brownish-white colour, not unlike 

 barleycorns in appearance* and indeed mistaken for these by early 

 observers a mistake which led to the unfounded notion that anta 

 store up corn for winter provision, though, from their always bee 

 torpid in the winter, they could have no need of this ; and even were 

 this not so, they never feed on corn, and would probably starve rather 

 than taste it. The authority of Scripture, which has been supposed 

 to countenance the popular notion, is shown by the Rev. Dr. Harris, 

 Messrs. Kirby and Speuce, and others, to have no foundation in the 

 sacred text. 



The cocoons are treated precisely like the eggs and the grubs wi. h 

 regard to exposure to heat; and the anxiety of the nurse-ants to 

 shelter them from the direct rays of the sun is taken advantage of on 

 the Continent to collect the cocoons (popularly and erroneously called 

 ants' -eggs) in quantity as food for nightingales and larks. The cocoons 

 of the Wood-Ant are the only species chosen ; and in most of the towns 

 in Germany one or more individuals make a living during summer by 

 the business. 



lu the case of moths, ichneumons, and other insects which spin 

 themselves up in cocoons, the included insect, when the time of its 

 change arrives, is enabled to make its own way through the envelope ; 

 but though it would appear, from some observations made by 

 Swammerdam, that anta may, when forced thereto, effect their own 

 disengagement, this .is not the usual process. It is the nurse-ants 

 that cut a passage for them with their mandibles, as was first minutely 

 described by Baron de Geer and the younger Huber. 



Labourt of the Working Antt. We have already seen that workers 

 or nurse-ants have to labour assiduously in placing the eggs, the grubs, 

 and the cocoons in due degrees of temperature ; that they have to feed 

 the grubs by a liquid disgorged from the stomach, and have to dis- 

 engage the insect at its period of change from the envelope of the 

 cocoon. They have also to perform the task of forming streets, 

 galleries, and chambers for the habitation and protection of the 

 colony, and they exhibit in the work such perseverance and skill as 

 must excite the admiration of every observer. Many of their processes, 

 indeed, it is not a little difficult to account for and explain, i ! 

 these have been very carefully investigated, particularly by the younger 

 Huber, in whose work, and in the ' Library of Entertaining Knowledge 

 Insect Architecture' (p. 264 et leg.), may be found copious details of 

 the mining, masonry, and carpentry of various species. We shall here 

 give an instance of each of those operations. 



Mi if ing. There is an interesting species called the Sanguinary Ant 

 (/'. santjuinaria, Latreille), reported to have been seen near London, 

 but which is certainly very rare, if it is found in England. In the 

 summer of 1832 we discovered several colonies of this ant on the hrow 

 of the heath above Godesberg, on the Rhine ; and being desirous of 

 taking a number of them alive to England for the purpose of observing 

 their singular manners, we waited till the beginning of October, when 

 they had ceased to work, and had retired for the winter to tin -ir 

 galleries underground. After uncovering the thick coping of dry 

 heath-twigs and grass-stems which was placed over the subterranean 

 city of the colony so as to defend it from rain and cold, we found 

 several covert-ways dug into the clay, wide enough to allow two or 

 three ants to walk abreast; but not an individual now made its 

 appearance, though some weeks previously we had observed thousands 

 in all the bustle of industry ; and we began to fear the whole had 

 migrated elsewhere. Being anxious, however, to see the interior struc- 

 ture, we dug in the direction of the covert-ways to the depth of about 

 six or nine inches, when we came upon a number of chambers com- 

 municating with each other by galleries, and from an inch to t 

 three inches in extent, in each of which a number of ants were 1\ ing 

 along the floor in a half torpid state, being so sluggish that they could 

 not be brought to run with their usual agility even when irrit.. 



The point which we wish to cull attention to here is, that the whole 



