128 



ANT. 



out the aid of these nurses. How many of the nurses 

 are necessary for the feeding of one larva, does not 

 appear to have been examined ; but from the voracity 

 with which almost alllarvse eat, it is highly probable that 

 more than one are required : and, therefore, to speak 

 about one mother supporting two or three dozen, 

 looks at least very suspicious. When the larvae are 

 full grown they enclose themselves in membranous 

 cocoons or cases, in which they undergo the rest ol 

 their changes until they are fit for coming into ac- 

 tivity ; and it has been said that the males and 

 females, at least, have not the power of extricating 

 themselves from those cases till they are liberated 

 by the workers. If this is true it shows at what stage 

 of the business the sexual development begins, and 

 seems to indicate that ants have the same means ol 

 keeping their perfect sexed animals in confinement 

 till they are wanted, as the bees have of confining 

 their germs. 



The attachment of the workers to these cocoons is 

 even greater than that to the eggs or the larvae. 

 They may be seen bringing them out in the fine fresh 

 air of the morning, taking them in when the heat and 

 light are too strong, sheltering them from the rain, 

 and if a breach is made in their dwelling the cocoons 

 are the first objects of their solicitude ; and although 

 they are more than double the size of the ants them- 

 selves, the little creatures run as fleetly with them to 

 places of safety as if they had no weight whatever. 

 The working ants are valiant in the breach of their 

 dwelling, determined in their strifes and combats, and 

 most perseveringly industrious in the search of their 

 food ; but it really seems that the care of larvae and 

 cocoons, the latter especially, is their great ruling 

 passion to which they willingly sacrifice all else, and 

 for which they are ready to give up their lives. In 

 the common garden ants it is scarcely possible to find 

 an individual in possession of a cocoon without find- 

 ing other individuals constantly tendering their as- 

 sistance ; and if the aperture, through which the one 

 in charge attempts to get it into the concealment of 

 the nest, is at all unmanageable, a number of others 

 come unbidden to assist, some hauling and others 

 pushing till the treasure is safely lodged. So fond 

 indeed are they of cocoons, that when the little nests 

 or colonies of this species are near each other, parties 

 of the one arc very apt to make free with the cocoons of 

 the others, and battle and strife to ensue upon the 

 point, though it does not appear that different tribes 

 of this species, or indeed of any species, fight much or 

 at all about the prizes they meet with. It seems, 

 indeed, that one of these labourers can no more sec 

 a cocoon without trying to nurse it, than a cat can 

 see a mouse without endeavouring to catch it. 



It is probably upon the strength of this instinqt (for 

 we must call it an instinct as we have no knowledge 

 of its cause), that certain species of ants have been 

 described as invading the dwellings of others, for the 

 purpose of carrying their partially developed young 

 into slavery. The species against which this charge 

 has been brought are principally the blood-red ant 

 (F. sanguinea), and the reddish-brown ant (F. ru- 

 fusccns), both of which are common in central Europe, 

 though not hitherto observed in Britain. 



That they do invade the hills or nests of feebler 

 ants, and carry the larvae, and especially the cocoons, 

 from thence to their own dwellings is highly pro- 

 bable, and it is probable that all ants which can gain 

 the mastery either by individual strength or by num- 



bers, do the same ; and it seems the general law o 

 their nursing instinct (if the term can be allowed] 

 that the labouring ants of every species bring hom 

 to their own dwelling all the impregnated females am 

 all the developed young that thev can ; but that tht^ 

 seize them for the purpose of enslaving them i 

 purely a gratuitous assumption ; and it may be said 

 without fear of contradiction, that there never was ai 

 ant of any species found attempting to make one o 

 another, or of the same species, perform its labou 

 for it. There is, in fact, the most perfect equality 

 among the labourers in an ant-hill ; and labou 

 seems to be so much their enjoyment, that they wil 

 not, upon any occasion, stand by and see it done bj 

 another. When any task is too great for an indi 

 vidual, that individual seeks for, and speedily obtains 

 assistance ; but however hard it has laboured previou 

 to the coming of the assistance, the arrival of that i 

 rather a signal for fresh exertion upon its part, thai 

 for any slackening of its labour. The true explana 

 tion of the alleged slavery seems, therefore, to bi 

 that the ants take the cocoons merely for the purpos< 

 of nursing them with the same tenderness and soli 

 citude as they would nurse those of their own species 

 It has sometimes been said that there is a divisiot 

 of labour among ants that one squad fight, anothe 

 keep the hill in repair, a third bring in provisions, i 

 fourth nurse the young, and so on. But as all animal; 

 work according to their organisation, and, generally 

 speaking, up to it, it would be contrary to the genera 

 law of nature to suppose any division of labour with 

 out corresponding differences of organisation. Am 

 upon examining ants, it is found that the labourers, i 

 unoccupied, are equally ready and willing to put theii 

 hand (such hand as it is) to any work which is requisiu 

 for the welfare of the community ; and the confident 

 with which they all go in quest of assistance, and the 

 readiness with which they receive it, are among th 

 most beautiful traits in their characters. The tasl 

 which defeats an ant is, as compared with those per 

 formed by the strongest of the larger animals, a mosi 

 formidable one ; for an ant will carry in proportion as 

 if a bull-dog were carrying a buffalo. Therefore 

 among all the innumerable substances which are 

 brought home to the nest in the season of the larvae, 

 there is not one, even the very largest, but which a 

 single ant will attack, and labour with all its might to 

 move along. If the prize cannot be made to stir, the 

 ant after some time darts oft' at a tangent, and encircles 

 the prize round and round, widening the circle a little 

 each time, and proceeding with so uncommon velocity 

 that one would suppose an ant's mode of rest to be 

 increased exertion. If in the course of these gyra- 

 tions it meet with any of its associates, they are sent 

 in the direction of the prize ; and in this way, one 

 who attends to the common garden ants, may often 

 see a large caterpillar, an earthworm, or some other 

 goodly prize, boine lightly to the nest by the united 

 strength of twenty, thirty, or fort} 7 , at which a single 

 individual had been tugging in vain for half an hour 

 previous. 



Among the species which inhabit in larger societies, 

 the field-ants and the wood-ants especially, the labours 

 of a much larger party are often required They can 

 contrive to move along the largest beetles, and even 

 a young mouse ; though it is not known that they 

 attack these animals in the living state. But what- 

 ever may be their labour or the number engaged in 

 it, all the individuals appear equally on the alert and 



