354 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



I commiserated their condition, and gave them one 

 of their negro servants. This individual, alone and 

 unassisted, established order, formed a chamber in 

 the earth, gathered together the larvae, extricated 

 several young ants that were ready to quit the condi- 

 tion of pupa?, and, in a word, preserved the life of 

 the remaining legionaries *." 



Our naturalist, not satisfied with what he could 

 observe on the exterior of these singular communi- 

 ties, opened one of the hills inhabited by legionary 

 and negro ants. The latter lost no time in carrying 

 away the larvae and pupae, which had thence been 

 exposed, to a place of safety, and opening galleries 

 which had been obstructed, while the legionaries 

 appeared to look on their exertions with the utmost 

 indifference, and never deigned to lend the least as- 

 sistance. They seemed, indeed, so confounded at the 

 altered aspect of the city, that they wandered about 

 quite at random s till the negroes helped them out of 

 their embarrassment by carrying them to some open 

 passage. " I observed one/' continues Huber, 

 " after several ineffectual windings, take the precau- 

 tion of laying on the earth the legionary, who remain- 

 ed in the same spot until the negro returned to its 

 assistance, who, having well ascertained and examined 

 one of the entrances, resumed its burthen and bore 

 it into the interior. If the entrance to any gallery 

 was unluckily obstructed by a mass of earth, and the 

 negro-ant wished to introduce, by that way, one of 

 the legionaries, it quickly deposited its load, and be- 

 gan clearing away the impediment, which was no 

 sooner effected than the Amazon was again taken up 

 arid carried triumphantly into the nest. These facts 

 fully prove the harmony which reigns between the 

 two species t." 



* Huber on Ants, p. 287. 

 f Huber, ut tupra, p. 273, 



