234 INSECTA. 



veloped. The males, much inferior in size to the females, and with 

 a proportionally smaller head and mandibles, fecundate them in the 

 air, where they form numerous swarms and soon after perish with- 

 out returning to their natal hill, where their presence is no longer 

 requisite. The females, now ready to become mothers, wander to a 

 distance from their birth-place, and having detached their wings by 

 means of their feet, found a new colony. Some of those, however, 

 which are in the vicinity of the ant-hills are arrested by the neuters, 

 who force them to return to their domicil, tear off their wings, pre- 

 vent them from leaving it, and force them to deposit their eggs there; 

 it is thought, however, that they are violently expelled the moment 

 that operation is effected. 



The neuters, which are distinct, not only by the want of Avings and 

 ocelli, but also by the size of their head, the strength of their man- 

 dibles, their more compressed and frequently knotted thorax, and 

 their proportionally longer legs, have the sole charge of all the eco- 

 nomy of the habitation, and the rearing of the young. The nature 

 and form of their nests or ant-hills vary according to the particular 

 instinct of the species. They usually establish it in the ground ; in 

 its construction some only employ particles of earth, and almost en- 

 tirely conceal it ; others seize on fragments of various bodies, and 

 with them raise conical or dome-like hillocks over the spot in which 

 they are domiciliated. Some establish their dwelling in the trunks of 

 old trees, the interior of which they perforate in every direction, in 

 the manner of a labyrinth, in which the detached particles are also 

 employed. Various and apparently irregular galleries lead to the 

 particular residence of their young. 



The neuters roam abroad in search of provisions, appear to inter- 

 communicate the success of their labours by the senses of touch and 

 smell, and to aid and assist each other. Fruit, Insects, or their larvae, 

 dead bodies of small quadrupeds and birds, &c., constitute their food. 

 They feed the larvae with their mouths, transport them in fine 

 weather to the external superficies of the hill, in order that they may 

 receive additional warmth, and take them down again on the ap- 

 proach of night or bad weather, defend them from their enemies, and 

 look to their preservation with the greatest fidelity, particularly 

 when the hill is disturbed. They pay equal attention to the nymphs, 

 some of which are enclosed in a cocoon, and the others naked ; they 

 tear open the envelope of the former when the moment of their ulti- 

 mate metamorphosis has arrived. 



I have observed neuters in various ant-hills, remarkable for a head 

 much larger than common, and for the unusual fewness of their 

 number. M. Dupont de Nemours, without being a naturalist, had 

 also previously noticed this difference *. M. de la Cord aire, whom I 

 have already mentioned, has given me a neuter allied to the alta 

 cephaloles of Fabricius, and assures me that individuals of this kind 

 were the defenders of their community, and apparently fulfilled the 

 functions of Captains in their excursio^g^ at which time they 

 marched along the sides of the main body. 



* See his Recher«bes sur les Fourmis Indig^aes. 



