382 



THE INSECT WOBLD. 



by the combustion of ligneous and amylaceous matters. Their 

 whole body is impregnated with this acid, and has a strong sour 

 smell. Some people like to chew ants, on account of their sourish 

 taste. " They also make," says Charles de Geer, " creams for 

 side dishes, to which these ants give, they say, the taste of lemon- 

 juice." We know, in the south of France, people who have 

 eaten these cremes aux fourmis ! Polyergus forms a sub-genus to 

 Formica. 



In all these species, the workers, or neuters, have the charge 



Fig. 361. Sections of an Ants' Nesl. 



of the building, provisioning, and rearing of the larvao, in fact, 

 all the care of the household, and the defence of the nest. 

 Deprived of wings, they are bound to the soil, and condemned to 

 work. As compensation, to them belong strength, authority, 

 power : nothing is done but through them. " Born protectors of 

 an immense family still in the cradle/' says M. Victor Rendu, "by 

 their vigilance, their tenderness, and their solicitude, without 



