THE ANT. 



537 





teeth. The breast is covered with a fine silky 

 hair, from which project six legs, that are 

 pretty strong and hairy, the extremities of 

 each armed with two small claws, which the 



of them together so as to form a purse. The viscous 

 matter used for this purpose is an animal juice which 

 nature has enabled them to elaborate. Another sort are 

 quite black. Their habitations are the inside of the 

 branches of a tree which they contrive to excavate, by 

 working out the pith almost to the extremity of the 

 slenderest twig, the tree at the same time flourishing as 

 if it had no such inmate. A third kind we found nested 

 in the root of a plant, which grows on the bark of trees 

 in the manner of misletoe, and which they had perfor- 

 ated for that use. This root is commonly as big as a 

 large turnip, and sometimes much bigger. When we 

 cut it we found it intersected by innumerable winding 

 passages, all filled with these animals, by which, how- 

 ever, the vegetation of the plant did not appear to have 

 suffered any injury. We never cut one of these roots 

 that was not inhabited, though some were not bigger than 

 a hazel-nut. The animals themselves are very small, 

 not more than half as big as the common red ant in 

 England. They had stings, but scarcely force enough 

 to make them felt ; they had, however, a power of tor- 

 menting us in an equal, if not in a greater degree ; for 

 the moment we handled the root, they swarmed from in- 

 numerable holes, and running about those parts of the 

 body that were uncovered, produced a titillation more 

 intolerable than pain, except it is increased to great 

 violence." 



The species called Sugar-Ants in the West Indies 

 are particularly destructive to the sugar-cane, as well as 

 to lime, lemon, and orange-trees, by excavating their 

 nests at the roots, and so loosening the earth that they 

 are frequently uprooted and blown down by the winds. 

 If this does not happen the roots are deprived of due 

 nourishment, and the plants become sickly and die. 



But the most extraordinary of ants is the White- Ants 

 or Termites, inhabiting the plains of East India, Africa, 

 and South America. Mr Smeathman has given in the 

 Philosophical Transactions a very complete account of 

 these wonderful creatures. He says that they are na- 

 turally divided into three orders : first, the working in- 

 sects, which he distinguishes by the name of labourers} 

 second, the fighters, or soldiers, which perform no other 

 labour than such as is necessary in defence of the nest ; 

 and third, the winged or perfect insects, which are male 

 and female, and capable of multiplying the species. The 

 latter he denotes the nobility or gentry, because they 

 neither labour nor fight. In their nest or hill, for they 

 build on the surface of the ground, the labourers are al- 

 ways the most numerous, there being at least a hundred 

 labourers for one of the fighting insects, or soldiers. In 

 this state they are about a quarter of an inch in length. 

 The second order, or soldiers, differ in figure from the 

 labourers. These appear to be such insects as have un- 

 dergone one change towards their perfect state. They 

 are now nearly half an inch in length, and equal in size 

 to about fifteen of the labourers. The shape of the head 

 is likewise greatly changed. In the former state the mouth 

 is evidently formed for gnawing, or for holding bodies; 

 but in this state the jaws being shaped like two sharp 

 awls, a little jagged, are destined solely for piercing or 

 wounding. For these purposes they are well calculated, 

 being as hard as a crab's claw, and placed in a strong 

 horny head, which is larger than all the rest of the body. 

 The insect of the third order, or in its perfect state, is 

 still more remarkable. The head, the thorax, and the 

 abdomen, differ almost in the same parts in the labourers 

 and soldiers. The animals are also now furnished with 

 lour large brownish transparent wings, by which they are 

 enabled, at the proper season, to emigrate, and to es~ 



VOL. II. 



animal uses in climbing. The belly is more 

 reddish than the rest of the body, which is of 

 a brown chestnut colour, shining as glass, and 

 covered with extremely fine hair. 



tablish new settlements. They are likewise greatly al- 

 tered in their size as well as figure, and have acquired 

 the powers of propagating the species. Their bodies now 

 measure nearly three quarters of an inch in length ; their 

 wings, from tip to tip, above two inches and a half ; and 

 their bulk is equal to that of thirty labourers, or two sol- 

 diers. Instead of active, industrious, and rapacious little 

 animals, when they arrive at their perfect state, they be- 

 come innocent, helpless, and dastardly. 



Their numbers are great, but their enemies are still 

 more numerous. They are devoured by birds, by every 

 species of ants, by carnivorous reptiles, and even by the 

 inhabitants of many parts of Africa. After such devas- 

 tation, it seems surprising that even a single pair should 

 escape. Some, however, are so fortunate ; and being 

 found by some of the labouring insects, that are continu- 

 ally running about the surface of the ground under their 

 covered galleries, are elected kings and queens over new 

 states; all those who are not so elected and preserved, 

 certainly perish. The manner in which these labourers 

 protect the happy pair from their innumerable enemies, 

 not only on the day of the massacre of almost all their 

 race, but for a long time after, justifies the use of the 

 term election. The little industrious creatures imme- 

 diately enclose them in a small chamber of clay suitable 

 to their size, into which at first they leave but one en- 

 trance, large enough for themselves and soldiers to go in 

 and out at, but too little for either of the royal pair to 

 use; and when necessity obliges them to make more en- 

 trances, they are never larger, so that of course, the vol- 

 untary subjects charge themselves with the task of pro- 

 viding for the offspring of their sovereigns, as well as of 

 working and fighting for them, until they have raised a 

 progeny capable at least of dividing the task with them. 



About this time a most extraordinary change takes 

 place in the queen; the abdomen begins to extend and 

 enlarge to such an enormous size, that an old queen will 

 sometimes have it so much increased, as to be nearly 

 two thousand times the bulk of the rest of her body. It 



Queen distended with eggs. 



is now of an irregular, oblong shape, and is become one 

 vast matrix full of eggs. When these are perfectly 

 formed, they begin to be protruded, and they come forth 

 so quickly, that about sixty in a minute, or upwards 01 

 eighty thousand in twenty -four hours, are deposited. The 

 eggs are immediately taken away by the attendants, and 

 carried to the nurseries : here they are hatched. The 

 young ones are attended and provided with every thing 

 necessary, until they are able to shift for themselves, and 

 take their share in the labours of the community. 



The nests, or rather hills of these ants, (for they are 

 often elevated ten or twelve feet above the surface of the 

 ground,) are nearly of a conical shape ; and sometimes so 

 numerous, as at a little distance to appear like little vil- 

 lages of the Negroes. (See a representation of ant-hills 

 in plate I. fig. 1.) Jobson, in his history of Gambia, 

 says that some of them are twenty feet high, and that he 

 and his companions have often hidden themselves behind 

 them, for the purpose of shooting deer and other wild 

 animals. Each hill is composed of an exterior and inte- 

 rior part. The exterior cover is a large clay shell, 

 shaped like a dome, of strength and magnitude sufficient 



3 Y 



