240 INSECTS. 



but in all the other societies the three kinds of individuals 

 have wings. The instincts of these societies are modified ac- 

 cording to their organic differences. Deprived of wings, the 

 neuters or workers amojig the ants form their dwellings in clefts 

 of trees, walls, or under ground. The wasps and bees, on the 

 contrary, whose wings enable them to enlarge the sphere of 

 their industry, have a greater choice of material and a wider 

 range of action.' Thus the dwellings of the hornets are formed 

 of a light papyraceous substance, admirably 'adapted in the 

 lightness of the material for being suspended in. the. air, and as 

 wonderfully constructed within for the number of its inhabi- 

 tants ; while the bees collect a resinous substance impermeable 

 to moisture, and capable from its ductility of being moulded into 

 any form. 



In the societies of insects which exist in a mixed form, that is, 

 where there are workers of one or two other species, the inter- 

 nal economy and 'arrangements are so wonderful, that, unless the 

 fact had been witnessed and related by such naturalists as Hum- 

 boldt and Huber, it would scarcely have commanded belief. The 

 workers of different species found in these warlike communities, 

 taken by force in their early age from neighbouring ant-hills, 

 become in their perfect state the auxiliaries of the captors or 

 their slaves. But all the neuters of these communities have 

 neither the same form nor functions ; for some, which M. Huber 

 distinguishes by the name of Amazons,. have long narrow arch- 

 ed mandibles without dentations, which, from their form, are 

 neither proper for carrying nor preparing the materials of their 

 habitation, and are evidently rather constructed as arms for of- 

 fence and defence than as tools for mechanical arts. These 

 individuals are therefore intended by nature for warriors ; to 

 fight seems their strongest predilection ; and the rearing of 

 their young, the most general instinctive feeling of animals, is 

 in their case committed to the care of strangers whom they have 

 taken captive. The othe/working ants do not take part in the pre- 

 datory excursions, unless driven to it by extreme want. These 

 Amazonian ants at a certain hour quit their dwelling, and march 

 in a close column, more or less numerous according to cir- 

 cumstances, towards the ant-hill previously reconnoitred, fight 

 their way to its recesses in spite of opposition, seize in their 

 mouths the larvae andpupae of the neuters or workers, &nd, putting 



