126 



ANT. 



in a great measure, devolves, should have such a con- 

 trolling power as well as the working bees ; but this 

 is a case in which we can trust but little to analogy. 



There is another point upon which information is 

 also much wanted, and that is the time and manner 

 of development of the wings both of the males 

 and females. Those organs are not required for the 

 ordinary purposes of life as they are in the bees, and 

 therefore the undeveloped females, that is by far the 

 great majority of ants, never acquire them. In the 

 males and females they are apparently absolutely 

 necessary for the purposes of pairing, and the con- 

 tinuation of the race ; and for that purpose both 

 sexes appear in great numbers furnished with them 

 in the warmer months. But when we endeavour to 

 ascertain when they come, how they come, whether 

 they accompany the sexual development, or come 

 after it, whether the perfect sexed animals are fur- 

 nished with them when they escape from their pupa 

 cases, or whether they are developed by some future 

 process in the individuals themselves, or some differ- 

 ence of treatment from the rest of the community, 

 we are left entirely in the dark, and here again, of 

 course, the history of those very singular creatures is 

 quite vague and uncertain. 



In the ants, as in all insects which contain a num- 

 ber of individuals with the sexual powers undeveloped, 

 all the males that appear are perfect animals ; but to 

 all useful and efficient purposes, they are mostly in- 

 ferior even to the undeveloped females. They seem 

 formed for the single operation of pairing only, and 

 that once performed they die. They have no weapons 

 of self-defence ; they have scarcely the means of 

 finding their own food ; and they take no share what- 

 ever in the labours of the community. Among bees, 

 as soon as their seasonal services are over, they are 

 tumbled headlong from the hive or slaughtered on 

 the threshold ; and among the ants, after they have 

 once left the hill for their seasonal purpose, it does 

 not appear that one of them returns, or is indeed suf- 

 fered to return. 



The probability is that, in our climate at least, 

 neither the males nor the perfect females of the ants 

 survive the winter; and that only the labourers, or 

 undeveloped females, pass the inclement season in 

 a dormant or hybernating state, until the weather 

 becomes so genial as to call them forth anew to 

 energy and labour. This point', however, depends upon 

 the indeterminate one already mentioned, and till that 

 is determined, it must remain indeterminate also. 



It is true that no winged ants appear in the earlier 

 months of the season, although then the wingless ones 

 are equally numerous and industrious. But no 

 sooner does the strength of the equinoctial heat 

 come, than winged ants are by no means rare in every 

 locality in which ants of any description are met 

 with ; and in those places where ant hills are large 

 and numerous they are often found in such num- 

 bers as absolutely to cloud the atmosphere. Now, 

 the question here is, whence come those winged ants ? 

 Do they hybernate wings and all, or are they trans- 

 formed out of the .working ants, by some process 

 which these have the power of performing? The 

 latter may be the case with the females, but with the 

 males it is exceedingly doubtful ; and the only ac- 

 count which, in the present state of our knowledge, 

 is, that we know nothing about the matter. It is 

 true that the pairing of the warm months mny, as in 

 the autumnal pairing of aphides, impregnate more 



than one generation of females ; it is also true, that 

 the perfect females, after they have deplumed thrm- 

 selves of their wings, and deposited their brood of 

 eggs, may turn to the state of imperfect females ; and 

 in that state'pass the season of hybernation, and also 

 the more early and inclement portion of the spring 

 and summer. None of these suppositions, however, 

 account for the midsummer appearance of the males ; 

 and as they are merely conjectures with regard to 

 the females, this, one of the most important points 

 in the natural history of the race, must remain 

 indeterminate until accurate observation shall throw 

 the necessary light upon it. 



But wherever they come from, or in what manner 

 soever they are produced, the males and females do 

 meet in the air, in vast numbers, at the season which 

 has been mentioned ; and as this is the only instance 

 we have of the pairing of the parties, we must con- 

 sider it as the annual preparation for the grand 

 reproduction of ants. 



Indeed, it seems expressly, and only for this period, 

 that both males and females are furnished with wings, 

 as they never use them at any other time or for any 

 other purpose than that of meeting each other on 

 those aerial excursions. There are some circum- 

 stances too, which would lead to the supposition 

 that the wings and the sexuality are developed by 

 the joint action of the season, and of some peculiar 

 mode of treatment on the part of the labourers. 

 Every one knows that the common ants are very 

 sensitive to the weather, and that the passage of the 

 slowest and most momentary cloud over the sun will 

 produce a change in their operations. At large ant- 

 hills, they may, for some time previous to the ap- 

 pearance of the winged swarms in the air, be seen 

 restraining the escape of both males and females, 

 hauling them back by main force by the wings and 

 legs, and taking them under cover, and keeping them 

 there, as if aware that the proper time, or rather the 

 proper temperature, for their ^departure had not 

 arrived. After the swarms in the air begin to make 

 their appearance, there is no longer any struggle to 

 prevent either male or female from quitting the ant- 

 hill ; and after that period there is no instance of the 

 working ants hurrying a male back to the hill, or 

 giving themselves the least trouble about him. With 

 the females it is different ; and numbers of the 

 working ants may be seen running about in all direc- 

 tions in search of these, which are understood never 

 to alight from the wing till they are impregnated, 

 and as seldom to mount into the air afterwards. 



The crowds in which winged ants appear in some 

 countries at certain seasons show the vast number of 

 these insects, without taking into account the neuters, 

 which are a large majority of the whole. To those 

 who have been in the habit of examining them, the 

 males are easily distinguished from the females, they 

 are considerably smaller, much more slender, and so 

 feeble on the legs that they can hardly walk. The 

 wings of the females are very thin and filmy, but in 

 other respects they are robust, and they walk well. 

 It does not appear that the male ants are able at all 

 to contend with the wind, which bends their wings, 

 and blows themselves before it like dust. Indeed it 

 is probable that none of the males remain in the air 

 longer than a single day ; and it is doubtful whether 

 the females remain as long. The absence of the 

 queen bee from the hive, when she sallies forth for 

 the same purpose, does not exceed half an hour, and 



