364 CLASS viii. 



over the ground, often a hundred feet long, which all end like rays 

 at the dwelling, the ants pass to and fro ; irregular and tortuous 

 passages lead to the separate habitation of the future generation. 

 All the labour of building, of nursing and feeding the larvae &c. is 

 discharged by the neuters. They live on fruits, insects and their 

 larvae, on dead birds and small mammals. They are very fond of 

 sugar, and follow the plant-lice in order to swallow the sweet sap (the 

 honey-dew) that drops from their body. They lay up no provision 

 for winter, as far at least as relates to our native species, but pass 

 the winter in a state of torpor, taking no food at all in the severest 

 cold. The working ants bear the larvae and nymphs with the great- 

 est care between their jaws to the surface when the sun shines on 

 their dwelling, and down again when rain falls on the earth, and 

 they defend with incredible courage the commonwealth which has 

 no other government but a true republic. The larvse and pupae are 

 commonly taken for eggs by the uninformed, and serve for food for 

 certain singing birds in cages : nightingales especially are fond of 

 them. In the last days of summer (August), in warm clear weather, 

 the winged males and female leave the nest in which they have 

 been brought up, fly in swarms through the air, copulate, and die 

 soon afterwards, being swallowed by birds, or drowned in water 

 and made food for fishes. The females that are left divest them- 

 selves with their feet of the wings that are now useless, and found 

 a new colony ; working ants, in whose neighbourhood they chance 

 to be, drag them to their nest to lay their eggs there ; when that is 

 accomplished they are driven without mercy from the nest. 



Comp. on Ants : 



SWAMMERDAM, Bifid der nat. bl. 287 299; CH. DE GrEER,/ns. xvmifeme 

 Mem. n. pp. 1042 1107; BONNET, Contempl. de la Nature, Partie xi. 

 chap. 22, (Euvr. compl. 8vo, ix. pp. 89 98 ; KIRBT and SPENCE, Introd. 

 to Entom. I. pp. 479 484 ; n. pp. 45 106 ; OKEN, Allgem. Naturgesch. 

 Vol. 2, 1835, pp. 895945. 



LATREILLE, Hist. nat. des Fourmis, i Vol. 8vo, av. fig. Paris, 1802. 



P. HUBEB, JRecherches sur les moeurs des Fourmis indigenes, i Vol. 8vo, 

 av. fig. Paris et Genfeve, 1810. 



LUND, Sur les habitudes de quclques Fourmis du Bresil. Ann. des Sc. nat. 

 xxm. 1831, pp. 113 138. 



A. Petiole of abdomen composed of two distinct nodes. Females 

 and neuters furnished with sting. 



Myrmica LATH, (with addition of other genera). 



Sub-genus : Atta FABR, LATR., Maxillary palps short, with five 

 joints or fewer. 



