CHAP. III. PASSIONS OF INSECTS. AFFECTION. 85 



never leaving them for a moment. De Geer having 

 disturbed one of these families, which inhabited the 

 branch of a birch tree, the mother showed every symp- 

 tom of excessive uneasiness ; and, far from attempting 

 to escape, she continued close to her little ones, in- 

 cessantly flapping her wings, as if to preserve them 

 from danger.* The care which is taken of, and the 

 attention which is paid to, the young, by such insects 

 as live in societies, is well known ; but it is not, per- 

 haps, so generally understood that, among ants, as soon 

 as ever the female has begun to lay her eggs, she tears 

 off the four wings by which she had, before, been 

 enabled to fly gaily through the air, but which are, 

 now, an impediment to the discharge of her maternal 

 duties, and devotes herself, in future, to the increase 

 and preservation of her family. M. P. Huber was, 

 several times, a witness of this extraordinary proceed- 

 ing. He describes the manner in which these cou- 

 rageous insects stretch their wings in various directions; 

 and, after sundry violent contortions, at length get rid 

 of their incumbrances.t If an ant's nest should be 

 disturbed, the whole community may be seen instantly 

 flocking towards a heap of little white oblong bodies, 

 the safety of which they put every nerve in motion to 

 secure. These bodies are the embryo young ; and, as 

 a proof of the devoted attachment which is exhibited 

 for them, an observer, on one of these occasions, having 

 cut an ant in two, the mutilated animal, far from 

 ceasing its exertions, actually contrived to convey ten 

 of these white masses safely into the interior of the 

 nest, before itself expired.^ 



(104.) Insects experience anger as well as love ; and, 

 surprising as it may seem, their little bodies can be exer- 

 cised in cruelty. The orator mantis (Mantis Oratorio, 

 Lin.) is of so unnatural a disposition, that, if in a state 

 of captivity, it will actually destroy and devour its own 

 species, righting with the utmost fury, until death 



* Int. to Ent. vol. i. p. 361. t Huber, p. 109. 



$ Int. to Ent. vol. i. p. 366, 



G 3 



