166 THE MOST GIFTED INSECT RACE. 



about four hundred yards in diameter, had extirpated 

 almost every other ant, only one species remaining to 

 defy it by means of superior agility. M. Forel, who 

 describes this enormous nest, calculates that its inhabi- 

 tants numbered half a million. 



The reader will notice that the feminine pronoun is 

 used in this account. Male ants never fight, nor do the 

 perfect females. All fighting devolves upon the imper- 

 fect females, or Amazons, as they are sometimes called. 

 As we shall presently see, there are some species of ant 

 in which the undeveloped females are divided into two 

 great bodies, one being intended for working and being 

 comparatively small, and the other intended for fighting, 

 and not only of very great comparative size, but fur- 

 nished with large and powerful jaws. 



Plunder and slave-catching are the chief objects of 

 these expeditions. In our own country the species most 

 celebrated for its slave-hunting proclivities is the Eed 

 Ant (Formica sanguined). This creature is mostly to be 

 found in the southern parts of England, and especially 

 haunts the New Forest, where it loves to makes its nest 

 in banks of dry soil 



