Tin; AM". 3G7 



merit which the working ants show to their rising progeny. In 

 cold weather they take them in their mouths, but without ofTer- 

 ing them the smallest injury, to the very depths of their habita- 

 tion, where they are less subject to the severity of the season. 



appear to be sucli insects as have undergone one change towards their per. 

 feet state. They are now nearly half an inch in lengtli, and etiual 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 I ittli' jagged, are destined solely for piercing or wounding. For tliesa 

 purposes they are well calculated, being as hard as a crab's claw, and placed 

 in a strong horny head, which is lar^jer than all the rest of the body. 



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

 able. The head, the thorax, and the abdomen, difler almost in the same 

 parts in the laboruers and soldiers. The animals are also now furnished 

 uith four large brownish transparent wings, by which they are enabled, at 

 the proper season, to emigrate, and to establish new settlements. They are 

 likewise greatly altered 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 

 soldiers. Instead of active, industrious, and rapacious little animals, when 

 they arrive at their perfect state, they become innocent, helpless, and das. 

 tiirdly. 



Their numbers are great, but their enemies are still more numerous. 

 They are devoured by birds, by every species of aits, by carnivorous rep. 

 tiles, and even by the inhabitants of many parts oT Africa. After such de- 

 vastation, it seems surprising that even a single pair should escape Some, 

 liowever, are so fortunate ; and being found by some of the labouring in. 

 sects, that are continually 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 tlieir innumerable 

 enemies, not only on the day of the massacre of almost all their race, but for 

 a long time after, will, I hope, justify me in the use of the term election. 

 The little industrious creatures immediately enclose them in a small cham- 

 ber 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 entrances, they are never larger, so that of course, the volun- 

 tary subjects charge themselves with the task of providing for the offspring 

 of their sovereigns, as well as of working and fighting for ihem, 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 sue, that 

 an old queen will sometimes have it so much increased, as to be nearly twc 

 thousand times the bulk of the rest of her body. It 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 lome forth so quick. 



