HYMENOPTEEA. 393 



at a reasonable distance from the ant-hill, to observe the environs. 

 When the fortress is unexpectedly attacked, whether by large 

 insects, Coleoptera, for instance, or by the ants from a neighbour- 

 ing nest, these vigilant sentinels immediately fall back and give 

 the alarm to the camp, not, however, without having boldly con- 

 fronted the enemy and opposed to him an honourable resistance. 

 Having re-entered the nest in all haste, they precipitate them- 

 selves into the passages, tapping with their antennae all the ants 

 which they meet, and thus spreading the alarm in the city. 

 Yery soon the agitation has become general, and thousands of 

 combatants sally forth from the citadel, ready to repel the attack 

 and make the enemy bite the dust. 



The possession of a flock of plant-lice is sometimes a subject 

 of discord, and becomes a casus belli between two neighbouring 

 ant-hills. But, usually, the war has for its object to make pri- 

 soners in other nests, and to carry off part of the inhabitants as 

 slaves. This is the origin of mixed ant-hills, which, independently 

 of their natural founders, contain one or two foreign species, helots 

 whom the conquerors have taken away from their birth-place, to 

 make of them auxiliaries and slaves. In these mixed ant-hills, 

 the species imported exceed in number the original population, 

 as it happens sometimes in those ships which are used in the 

 slave trade, and on which the slaves are often found in greater 

 numbers than the sailors composing the crew. The phalanx of 

 ants reduced to a state of slavery pay all sorts of attentions to 

 their masters. They lick them, brush them, caress them, carry 

 them on their backs, feed them good and faithful servants that 

 they are and even rear their progeny. The masters impose on 

 their slaves all sorts of work. They only reserve for themselves 

 the making of war. From time to time, they undertake expedi- 

 tions against some neighbouring ants' nest. If they are conquered 

 and come back without bringing with them any prisoners, the 

 slaves or auxiliaries are sulky to them, and will not allow them 

 for some time to enter the nest. If they return, on the -con- 

 trary, loaded with booty, they flatter them, they give them food, 

 they relieve them of their prisoners, which they lead away into 

 the interior of the fortress. The warlike tribes, however, never 

 carry off any other but the larvae and nymphs of workers from 



