ON ENTOMOLOGY. 41 



to bind together the several substances of their nest, but in place of this 

 avail themselves of the rain to work or knead the earth, leaving- the sun 

 and wind to consolidate it. 



My own observations tend to confirm some of the statements which 

 I have related. I put some Ants -of the yellow species (Formica flava) 

 into a large glass bottle, that I might watch their proceedings under- 

 ground ; and I had likewise obtained some of the Black Ants (Formica 

 rufa), which I likewise placed in the same situation. For the first two 

 or three days no work was carried on ; at the end of that time the top of 

 the mould which was placed in the bottle was covered with dead and 

 dying of the black species ; for the Yellow Ants, being in much larger 

 numbers, had conquered the Black Ants and destroyed them. They then 

 set about constructing galleries ; for, unlike the species I have related 

 above, they dig into the earth instead of raising chambers on the top of 

 it. I have not been able to ascertain whether the Ants are totally blind, 

 but I have reason to think that their antennae, or feelers answer the pur- 

 pose of eyes ; for, as I was watching them one day, I perceived that an 

 Ant had lost one of its antennte, and in consequence was proceeding 

 very slowly, almost every second touching the earth with its remaining 

 feeler, as if it had been totally blind. They proceeded very quickly in 

 their work of excavating galleries, and made passages in every direction. 

 In about a week after I had placed the first Ants in the bottle, I procured 

 another quantity and put them on the top of the earth. A very curious 

 circumstance then occurred, which, if I had not seen with my own eyes, 

 I certainly should not have believed. One of the Ants had been acci- 

 dentally cut in two, and I saw the legs and the head running about the 

 mould evidently in search of its body. In about two hours it had been 

 successful, for I saw it joining its body to its head and legs, and it then 

 walked about with as much activity as the rest.* 



DIPTERA. Few can have failed to remark that Flies walk with the 

 utmost ease along the cieling of a room, and no less so upon a perpen- 

 dicular looking-glass ; and though this were turned downwards, the Flies 

 would not fall off, but could maintain their position undisturbed with 

 their backs hanging downwards. The conjectures devised,by naturalists 

 to account for this singular circumstance, previous to the ascertaining of 

 the actual facts, are not a little amusing. Some suppose, says the Abb6 

 de la Pluche, that when the Fly marches over any polished body on 

 which neither her claws nor her points can fasten, she sometimes com- 

 presses her sponge, and causes it to evacuate a fluid, which fixes her in 

 such a manner as prevents her falling, without diminishing the facility 

 of her progress ; but it is much more probable that the sponges corres- 

 pond with the fleshy balls which accompany the claws of dogs and cats, 

 and that they enable the Fly to proceed with a softer pace, and contri- 



* J. B. B. 



