AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNc;. 371 



bial rites are celebrated the unhappy husband dies, and 

 the widowed bride seeks only how she may provide for 

 their mutual offspring. Panting no more to join the choir 

 of aerial dancers, her only thought is to construct a sub- 

 terranean abode in which she may deposit and attend 

 to her eggs, and cherish her embryo young, till, having 

 passed through their various changes, they arrive at their 

 perfect state, and she can devolve upon them a portion 

 of her maternal cares. Her ample wings, which before 

 were her chief ornament and the instruments of her plea- 

 sure, are now an incumbrance which incommode her in 

 the fulfilment of the great duty uppermost in her mind ; 

 she therefore, without a moment's hesitation, plucks them 

 from her shoulders. Might we not then address females 

 who have families, in words like those of Solomon, " Go 

 to the ant, ye mothers, consider her ways and be wise"? 



M. P. Huber was more than once witness to this pro- 

 ceeding. He saw one female stretch her wings with a 

 strong effort so as to bring them before her head she 

 then crossed them in all directions next she reversed 

 them, alternately on each side at last, in consequence of 

 some violent contortions, the four wings fell at the same 

 moment in his presence. Another, in addition to these 

 motions, used her legs to assist in the work a . 



Thus, from the very moment of the extrusion of the 

 egg to the maturity of the perfect insect, are the ants 

 unremittingly occupied in the care of the young of the 



a Huber, 109. Gould had, long before Huber, observed that fe- 

 male ants cast their wings, pp. 59, 62, 64. I have frequently ob- 

 served them, sometimes with only one wing, at others with only frag- 

 ments of the wings; and again, at others they were so completely 

 pulled off, that it could not be known that they formerly had them, 

 only by the sockets in which they were inserted. 



2 B 2 



