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was not so numerous as the former, but nevertheless a 

 tolerably good one, and containing, even at this time 

 of the year, three fine queens. These, however, were 

 not in a more torpid state than the yellow ants, but 

 moved about very leisurely. The difference in size of the 

 workers ( ? ) here is very remarkable, some being more 

 than twice the size of others, the least of which (if 

 they are the same species, for I have not yet minutely 

 examined them,) appear objects of great care and 

 anxiety to the larger ; who, as soon as they were 

 sufficiently recovered from the cold, eagerly sought 

 after them, and carried them in their mouth to a place 

 of security : the lesser seemed particularly to compre- 

 hend their meaning, for they immediately rolled them- 

 selves up, and allowed themselves to be carried without 

 the least resistance. Huber says, ants do not become 

 torpid till the thermometer sinks to 2 Reaumur 

 (27 F.) : in this case, my examinations have been too 

 early. I shall, however, again renew my search. In 

 my yellow ant, before mentioned, I noticed a curious 

 .proof of their tenacity of life. Two or three which I 

 mutilated in digging, or some way or other, so as to 

 remove the entire abdomen, were walking about very 

 composedly after three days, and even offered resist- 

 ance ; which shows the vital power must be very great, 

 as the animal is but one line and a half, or two lines 

 at most, in length." 



The eggs of insects are remarkably defended against 

 cold. Spallanzani exposed the ova of the silk-worm, 

 with those of other insects, to the action of a freezing 

 mixture, 38 below zero, Fahrenheit, but they were 

 neither frozen nor had their fertility impaired. In- 

 sects may be frozen into solid masses of ice, and yet 

 revive : in Capt. Franklin's Narrative, we see this ex- 

 traordinary fact in the instance of an icy mass of 

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