AKT LIFE. 151 



gradually towards the poles. The wonderful heat-endur- 

 ing power of the ants has been admirably described by 

 Dr. Livingstone. 



" In the midst of this dreary drought it was wonderful 

 to see those tiny creatures, the ants, running about with 

 their accustomed vivacity. I put the bulb of a thermo- 

 meter three inches under the soil in the sun, at midday, and 

 found the mercury to stand at 132 to 134. 



" If certain kinds of beetles were placed on the surface, 

 they ran about for a few seconds and expired. But this 

 broiling heat only augmented the activity of the long- 

 legged black ants ; and not only were they, in this sultry 

 weather, able individually to moisten soil to the consist- 

 ency of mortar, but when the inner chambers of their 

 galleries was laid open, they were surprisingly humid. 

 Yet there was no dew, and the house being placed on a 

 rock, they could have no subterranean passage to the bed 

 of the river, which ran about three hundred yards below 

 the hill. 



" Can it be that they have the power of combining the 

 oxygen and hydrogen of their vegetable food, by vital 

 force, so as to form water ? " 



To begin with their place in the scale of nature. 



Ants belong to the Hymenoptera, in common with 

 bees, wasps, ichneumons, and sun-flies. Like many of the 

 bees and wasps, they are social in their habits, but they 

 differ from these insects in many respects. 



In common with the social bees and wasps, they are 

 divided into males, females, and workers. But the 



