SCIENCE AND POETRY. 



By what instruction does she bite the grain, 

 Lest, hid in earth, and taking root again, 

 It might elude the foresight of her care ? " 



PRIOR. 



It has been ascertained, however, that these instincts are- 

 erroneously imputed to the ant. That insect passes the winter in 

 a torpid state, and does not lay up any store of provisions. Still 

 less does it take any such precautions as those commonly im- 

 puted to it, of biting off the ends of the grains which it lays in 

 store, to prevent them from germinating. It is supposed that 

 this error may have arisen from the insect being observed to 

 carry about their young in the pupa state, in which they have 

 some resemblance to a grain of corn, and also from their being 

 observed to gnaw off the end of the sheath which encloses the 

 pupa, in order to liberate the insect, after it has attained its perfect 

 state, from its confinement. 



18. The words of Solomon respecting this insect, which occur in 

 Proverbs, vi. 6, 7, 8, are well known : 



6. Go to the ant, thou shiggard ; consider her ways and be wise. 



7. Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, 



8. Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the 

 harvest. 



If the original Hebrew word, which has been here translated by 

 the Saxon ant, properly signifies the European insect of that 

 name, these verses of Solomon would undoubtedly involve an 

 error in zoological history ; but that cannot be affirmed until the 

 habits and manners of other species of the insect inhabiting 

 warmer climates have been examined and ascertained. For 

 although during the cold winters incidental to this climate, the 

 ants remaining in a torpid state do not need food, yet in warmer 

 regions, where they are probably confined to their nests during 

 the rainy season, a store of provisions may be necessary for them. 

 This supposition has been to a great extent verified by the dis- 

 covery made by Colonel Sykes, at Poonah, in India, of a species of 

 ant, which he denominates Atta providens, which store up the 

 seeds of a kind of grass called panicum, at the time they are ripe 

 in January and February, which they expose on the outside of 

 their nests to the sun in the warm season, for the purpose of 

 drying them after they have been wetted by the rains of the 

 Monsoon. Such measures cannot be explained, except by the 

 supposition that these seeds are destined for food, and though 

 there is no recorded instance of ants feeding on any vegetable 

 substances, except such as^are saccharine, yet, all experience 

 proves how constantly in entomology, exceptions to general laws 

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