300 HABITATIONS OF ANIMALS. 



tations in which they have been reared, as soon as they have 

 undergone the last metamorphosis, and seldom revisit them. 

 They live principally in the air, like other insects, forming 

 numerous swarms. The females, as soon as they are ready 

 to deposit their eggs, wander from their place of birth, deprive 

 themselves of their wings by means of tteir feet, and found a 

 new establishment, whilst the males, having become entirely 

 useless, all perish. A few of the females are seized by the 

 neuters, confined in the original habitation, deprived of their 

 wings, and obliged to lay their eggs there, and are then driven 

 out to perish. 



'The neuters are distinguished not only by the want of 

 wings, but by the size of their head, the strength of their 

 jaws, and the length of their feet. They have charge of the 

 principal part of the labor of preparing for the reception and 

 nourishment of the young. The nests of ants differ very 

 much in different species. They are generally made in the 

 earth. Some merely dig out the sand and form holes running 

 in different directions, so that the habitation is almost entirely 

 subterraneous. Others gather together particles of many 

 different kinds, and raise mounds of considerable size above 

 the surface of the earth in the form of domes. Others choose 

 for their residence the trunks of old trees, the interior of 

 which they pierce with holes passing in every direction. All 

 the passages or galleries of which these habitations consist, 

 terminate in an apartment designed for the reception of the 

 young. 



' The food of ants consists of fruit, insects and their larvae, 

 and the bodies of small quadrupeds and birds. The neuters, 

 which are the providers for the whole establishment, are 

 principally governed in their researches by the senses of 

 touch and smell. With the fruits of their labors they feed 

 the larvse while in a helpless state. In warm weather they 

 drag them up for the benefit of the heat to the outside of their 

 holes, and, at the approach of night or of bad weather, convey 

 them back again into the recesses of their habitations. In 

 short, all their labor and care are directed with a view to the 

 accommodation and preservation of an offspring in which they 

 really have no share. They defend them against the attack 

 of all enemies, and risk for them their safety and their lives ; 

 and after watching them with unremitting assiduity until they 

 have arrived at the perfect state, they will not then suffer 

 them to leave the nest unless the weather be fine and propi- 

 tious, when they permit them to take their departure.' 



