PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 51 



of the other about one third a . (In my specimens, the 

 large workers of F. rufa are nearly three times, and of 

 F. J/ava twice, the size of the small ones.) All were 

 equally engaged in the labours of the colony. Large 

 workers were also noticed by M. P. Huber in the nests 

 of Polyergm rufescens b , but he could not ascertain their 

 office. 



Having introduced you to the individuals of which 

 the associations of ants consist, I shall now advert to the 

 principal events of their history, relating first the fates 

 of the males and females. In the warm days that occur 

 from the end of July to the beginning of September, and 

 sometimes later, the habitations of the various species of 

 ants may be seen to swarm with winged insects, which 

 are the males and females, preparing to quit for ever the 

 scene of their nativity and education. Every thing is in 

 motion and the silver wings contrasted with the jet bo- 

 dies which compose the animated mass, add a degree of 

 splendour to the interesting scene. The bustle increases, 

 till at length the males rise, as it were by a general im- 

 pulse, into the air, and the females accompany them. 

 The whole swarm alternately rises and falls with a slow 

 movement to the height of about ten feet, the males fly- 

 ing obliquely with a rapid zigzag motion, and the females, 

 though they follow the general movement of the column, 

 appearing suspended in the air, like balloons, seemingly 

 with no individual motion, and having their heads turned 

 towards the wind. 



a Gould, 103. 



b M. Huber calls this an apterous female; yet he could not dis- 

 cover that they laid eggs ; and he owns that they more nearly re- 

 sembled the workers than the females ; and that he should have con- 

 sidered them as such, had he seen them mix with them in their ex- 

 cursions. Huber, p. 251. 



E 2 



