ENTOMOLOGY. 247 



&c. have been obtained. Like bees and wasps, ants 

 are divided into males, females, and neutrals, which 

 last constitute the great mass of the tribe, and appear 

 to conduct the business of the nest. They are pro- 

 bably undeveloped females. 



The Food of Ants. 



The principal food of ants is the honey that ex- 

 udes from another insect in the grub state, which 

 they bring home from day to day as they are wanted. 

 Recent discoveries have proved that ants do not eat 

 grain, but live almost entirely on animal food and 

 this honey. Some kind of ants bring home the grubs, 

 keep them in cells as cows are kept in stalls, feed 

 them with proper vegetable matter, attend to their 

 eggs, superintend the hatching, and rear the young 

 like calves. When the cold renders the ant torpid, 

 the insect becomes torpid also. 



Invisible Animalcules. 



The eye, unassisted, takes in from the elephant to 

 the mite ; but then commences the order of micro- 

 scopal animals, which comprehends all those from 

 the mite down to those estimated to be twenty-seven 

 million times smaller ; nor does the gradation actually 

 stop here, being only limited by the imperfection of 

 the microscope.* Nature is infinite in every thing ; 

 the heavens exhibit infinity of space, and the micro- 

 scope infinity of animal diminution. 



* There is a limit, however, to the power of high magnifiers . 

 beyond which the liability to ocular deception becomes so great, 

 as to counterbalance any supposed advantage from the increased 

 magnitude of the object. 



