PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 59 



their indefatigable industry and incessant labours, or 

 invite you to be present, during their hours of relaxation, 

 at their sports and amusements. 



That ants, though they are mute animals, have the 

 means of communicating to each other information of 

 various occurrences, and use a kind of language which 

 is mutually understood, will appear evident from the fol- 

 lowing facts. 



If those at the surface of a nest are alarmed, it is 

 wonderful in how short a time the alarm spreads through 

 the whole nest. It runs from quarter to quarter ; the 

 greatest inquietude seems to possess the community; 

 and they carry with all possible dispatch their treasures, 

 the larvae and pupae, down to the lowest apartments. 

 Amongst those species of ants that do not go much from 

 home, sentinels seem to be stationed at the avenues of 

 their city. Disturbing once the little heaps of earth 

 thrown up at the entrances into the nest of F. jlava, 

 which is of this description, I was struck by observing a 

 single ant immediately come out, as if to see what was 

 the matter, and this three separate times. 



The F. herculanea inhabits the trunks of hollow 

 trees on the continent, for it has not yet been found in 

 England, upon which they are often passing to and fro. 

 M. Huber observed, that when he disturbed those that 

 were at the greatest distance from the rest, they ran to- 

 wards them, and, striking their head against them, com- 

 municated their cause of fear or anger, that these, in 

 their turn, conveyed in the same way the intelligence to 

 others, till the whole colony was in a ferment, those neu- 

 ters which were within the tree running out in crowds 

 to join their companions in the defence of their hubita- 



