THE ANT. 



535 



grow larger, they require a greater supply ; 

 till at last the animal, by whose vitals they are 

 supported, is no longer able to sustain them, 

 but dies ; its whole inside being almost eaten 

 away. It often happens, however, that it 

 survives their worm-state, and then they 

 change into a chrysalis, inclosed in the cater- 

 pillar's body till the time of their delivery ap- 

 proaches, when they burst their prisons, and 

 fly away. The caterpillar, however, is irre- 

 parably destroyed, it never changes into a 

 chrysalis, but dies shortly after from the inju- 

 ries it had sustained. 



Such is the history of this fly, which, though 

 very terrible to the insect tribe, fails not to be 

 of infinite service to mankind. The millions 

 which it kills in a single summer are incon- 

 ceivable ; and without such a destroyer, the 

 fruits of the earth would only rise to furnish a 

 banquet for the insect race, to the exclusion of 

 all the nobler ranks of animated nature. 



CHAP. V. 



OF THE ANT. 



THOUGH the number of two- winged flies be 

 very great, and the naturalists have taken 

 much pains to describe their characters and 

 varieties ; yet there is such a similitude in 

 (heir forms and manners, that in a work like 

 this, one description must serve for all. We 

 now, therefore, come to a species of four- 

 winged insects, that are famous from all anti- 

 quity for their social and industrious habits, 

 that are marked for their spirit of subordina- 

 tion, that are offered as a pattern of parsimony 

 to the profuse, and of unremitting diligence to 

 the sluggard. 



In the experiments, however, which have 

 been more recently made, and the observations 

 which have been taken, much of their boasted 

 frugality and precaution seems denied them : 

 the treasures they lay up are no longer sup- 

 posed intended for future provision ; and the 

 choice they make in their stores, seems no way 

 dictated by wisdom. It is indeed somewhat 

 surprising, that almost every writer of anti- 

 quity should describe this insect, as labouring 

 in the summer, and feasting upon the produce 

 during the winter. Perhaps, in some of the 

 warmer climates where the winter is mild, and 

 of short continuance, this may take place ; but 

 in France and England, these animals can 

 have no manner of occasion for a supply of 

 winter provisions, as they are actually in a 

 state of torpidity during that season. 



The common ants of Europe are of two or 

 three different kinds : some red, some black; 

 some with stings, and others without ; such as 



have stings, inflict their wounds in that man- 

 ner ; such as are unprovided with these wea- 

 pons of defence, have a power of spurting from 

 their hinder parts an acid pungent liquor, 

 which, if it lights upon the skin, inflames and 

 burns it like nettles. 1 



1 The formica rufa, or wood-ant, is the largest of our 

 British ants. It is called the Hill-ant by Gould, the 

 Fallow-ant by the English translator oi'Huber, and popu- 

 larly the Pismire. It invariably lives in or near woods 

 and forests. It may be readily distinguished from other 

 ants by the dusky black colour of its head and hinder 

 parts, and the rusty brown of its middle. The struc- 

 tures reared by this species are often of considerable 

 magnitude, and bear no small resemblance to a rook's 

 nest thrown upon the ground, bottom upwards. The ex- 

 terior of the riest is composed of almost every transport- 

 able material which the colonists can find in their vici- 

 nity ; but the greater portion consists of withered grass 

 and short twigs of trees, piled up in apparent confusion, 

 but with sufficient regularity to render the whole smooth, 

 conical, and sloping towards the base, for the purpose, 

 we may infer, of carrying off rain water. When within 

 reach of a corn-field, they often also pick up grains of 

 wheat, barley, or oats, and carry them to the nest as 

 building materials, and not for food as was believed by 

 the ancients. The coping which forms the exterior of 

 the wood-ant's nest, though only a small portion of the 

 structure, which consists of a great number of interior 

 chambers and galleries, with funnel-shaped avenues lead- 

 ing to them, is one of the most essential parts, and we 

 cannot follow a more delightful guide than the younger 

 Huber, in detailing its formation. 



" The labourers," he says, " of which the colony is 

 composed, not only work continually on the outside of 

 their nest, but, differing very essentially from other spe- 

 cies, who willingly remain in the interior, sheltered 

 from the sun, they prefer living in the open air, and do 

 not hesitate to carry on, even in our presence, the greater 

 part of their operations. To have an idea how the 

 straw or stubble roof is formed, let us take a view of the 

 ant-hill at its origin, when it is simply a cavity in the 

 earth. Some of its future inhabitants are seen wander- 

 ing about in search of materials fit for the exterior work, 

 with which, though rather irregularly, they cover up the 

 entrance; whilst others are employed in mixing the 

 earth, thrown up in hollowing the interior, with frag- 

 ments of wood and leaves, which are every moment 

 brought in by their fellow -assistants ; and this gives a 

 certain consistence to the edifice, which increases in size 

 daily. Our little architects leave here and there cavi- 

 ties, where they intend constructing the galleries which 

 are to lead to the exterior, and as they remove in the 

 morning the barriers placed at the entrance of their nest 

 the preceding evening, the passages are kept open during 

 the whole time of its construction. We soon observed 

 the roof to become convex ; but we should be greatly 

 deceived did we consider it solid. This roof is destined 

 to include many apartments or stories. Having ob- 

 served the motions of these little builders through a pane 

 of glass, adjusted against one of their habitations, I am 

 thence enabled to speak with some degree of certainty 

 upon the manner in which they are constructed. I as- 

 certained, that it is by excavating or mining the under 

 portion of their edifice, that they form their spacious 

 halls, low, indeed, and of heavy construction, yet suffi- 

 ciently convenient for the use to which they are appro- 

 priated, that of receiving, at certain hours of the day, the 

 larvae and pupsc. These halls have a free communication 

 by galleries, made in the same manner. If the materials 

 of which the ant-hill is composed were only interlaced, 

 they* would fall into a confused heap every time the ants 



