78 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



have proceeded to thirty feet or more from their own 

 habitation, they disperse; and, like dogs with their 

 noses, explore the ground with their antennae to detect 

 the traces of the game they are pursuing. The negro 

 formicary, the object of their search, is soon discovered ; 

 some of the inhabitants are usually keeping guard at the 

 avenues, which dart upon the foremost of their assailants 

 with inconceivable fury. The alarm increasing, crowds 

 of its swarthy inhabitants rush forth from every apart- 

 ment; but their valour is exerted in vain; for the be- 

 siegers, precipitating themselves upon them, by the 

 ardour of their attack compel them to retreat within, 

 and seek shelter in the lowest story ; great numbers en- 

 tering with them at the gates, while others with their 

 mandibles make a breach in the walls, through which 

 the victorious army marches into the besieged city. In 

 a few minutes, by the same passages, they as hastily 

 evacuate it, each carrying off in its mouth a larva or 

 pupa which it has seized in spite of its unhappy guardians. 

 On their return home with their spoil, they pursue ex- 

 actly the route by which they went to the attack. Their 

 success on these expeditions is rather the result of their 

 impetuosity, by which they damp the courage of the 

 negroes, than of their superior strength, though they 

 are a larger animal ; for sometimes a very small body of 

 them, not more than 150, has been known to succeed in 

 their attack and to carry off their booty 3 . 



* Since the publication of the first edition of this volume I have 

 met with fresh confirmation of the extraordinary history here re- 

 lated. Having been induced to visit Paris, and calling upon M. La- 

 treille (so justly celebrated as one of the first entomologists of 

 the age, and to whom I feel infinitely indebted for the friendly at- 

 tentions which he paid to me during my too short stay in that 

 metropolis), he assured me, that he had verified all the principal 



