200 INSECTS. 



words of Solomon : Go to the ant, thou sluggard : 

 consider her ways, and be wise : which having no guide, 

 overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, 

 gathereth her food in the harvest. It has long been 

 popularly supposed that the ant does actually store up 

 grain as food for winter use, and the resemblance to 

 some small grain of the white pupse so carefully laid up, 

 so eagerly seized and carried away to some safe place on 

 the disturbance of a nest, has fostered, if not given rise 

 to this idea. The truth, however, is that, at least in 

 England, the Ants spend the winter in a torpid state, 

 neither requiring nor possessing magazines of food; 

 the food so industriously collected at other times being 

 for the immediate consumption of the inmates of the nest. 

 That seeds of various kinds are collected by Ants and 

 carried to the nest is beyond a doubt, but all observations 

 point to the fact that these are used not as food, but 

 as building material, in common with small stones and 

 other small objects which are collected at the same 

 time and in the same manner. Possibly in this fact 

 may be found an explanation of the supposed agricul- 

 tural performances mentioned in the note at p. 191. 



How these facts are to be reconciled with the words 

 of the inspired writer remains to be shown. Possibly 

 a further knowledge of the habits of ants in warmer 

 climates may do this, or possibly, it may be a question 

 for the Philologist rather than for the Hymenopterist, as 

 it is by no means easy, nor always possible, to ascertain 

 without doubt the exact species of animal to which the 

 Hebrew names apply. In the volumes of Messrs. Kirby 

 and Spence, however, the following remarks occur, 

 and seem to remove the difficulty on a sound prin- 

 ciple : 



