GOVERNMENT OF ANTS f 299 



similar homage to that evinced by bees for their 

 queen. Crowds eagerly press around her, present- 

 ing her with food, and conducting her through the 

 steep and difficult passages, to the galleries, by car- 

 rying her in their mandibles, in which case she coils 

 herself up into a round ball, so as to incommode her 

 bearer as little as possible. "The eggs," says Huber, 

 " taken up by the labourers, at the instant of their 

 being laid, are collected around her. When she seeks 

 repose, a group of ants environ her. Several females 

 live in the same nest ; they show no rivalry ; each 

 has her court; they pass each other uninjured, and 

 sustain in common the population of the ant-hill ; 

 but they possess no power, which, it would seem, 

 entirely lodges with the workers*." 



" You may sometimes," says Gould, " expect to 

 find two queens in the same colony. I have once 

 or twice met with three. They most usually reside 

 in the same lodgment, and live together in perfect 

 harmony and union." We have recently visited a 

 numerous colony of the red ant (Myrmica rubra), 

 in which we saw no less than eight females without 

 wings, all residing in the same large chamber, and 

 no (apparently) distinct group of attendants round 

 each, though a crowded body of workers indis- 

 criminately surrounded the whole eight. In the 

 under-ground chambers, which we did not open, 

 there might, perhaps, have been others t. Gould 

 further tells us, that " in whatever apartment a 

 queen- ant condescends to be present, she commands 

 obedience and respect. A universal gladness spreads 

 itself through the whole cell, which is expressed by 

 particular acts of joy and exultation. They have a 

 peculiar way of skipping, leaping, and standing 

 upon their hind legs, arid prancing with the others. 

 These frolicks they make use of both to congratulate 

 * Page 133. f J - R - 



