316 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



which your partiality to your friend may, perhaps, induce you to think 

 not wholly devoid of interest that it has been my fortune to make. 



The societies of ants, as also of other Hymenoptera, differ from those of 

 the Termites in having inactive larvae and pupae, the neuters or workers 

 combining in themselves both the military and civil functions. Besides the 

 helpless larvae and pupae which have no locomotive powers, these societies 

 consist of females, males, and workers. The office of the females, at their 

 first exclusion distinguished by a pair of ample wings (which, however, as 

 you have heard, they soon cast), is the foundation of new colonies, and the 

 furnishing of a constant supply of eggs for the maintenance of the popula- 

 tion in the old nests as well as in the new. These are usually the least 

 numerous part of the community. 1 The office of the males, which are also 

 winged, and at the time of swarming are extremely numerous, is merely 

 the impregnation of the females : after the season for this is past, they die. 

 Upon the workers 2 devolves, except in nascent colonies, all the work, as* 

 well as the defence of the community, of which they are the most mime* 

 rous portion. In some societies of ants the workers are of two dimensions. 

 In the nests of F. rufa andfatva such were observed by Gould, the size of 

 one exceeding that of die other about one-third. 3 (In my specimens, the 

 large workers of F. rufa are nearly three times, and of F.flava, twice, the 

 size of the small ones.) All were equally engaged in the labours of the 

 colony. Large workers were also noticed by M. P. Huber in the nests of 

 Polyergus rufescens*, but he could not ascertain their office. More light, 

 however, has been of late thrown on this subject by the observations 

 of M. Lacordaire and M. Lund upon these large workers, as they occur in 

 the nests of South American ants. They have ascertained them to be 

 strictly the soldiers, which, though of a different origin, like those of the 

 Termites before described, have it expressly in charge to defend the 

 rest of the community ; for which office their size full twice that of 

 the other workers and their immense heads and jaws in proportion, ad- 

 mirably adapt them. M. Lacordaire informs us that, both in Cayenne and 

 Brazil, he has been a thousand times witness of the accuracy of the facts 

 stated by M. Lund as to the military office of these large and big-headed 

 workers ofAtta cephalotes, and allied species, during the marches and ex- 

 cursions undertaken by the society. They never mix themselves with the 

 mass of the moving columns ; but, stationed on their flanks, they are seen 

 sometimes to march forward; then to return and halt a moment, as if to 



1 Gould says that the males and females are nearly equal in number (p. 62.) ; 

 but from Huber's observations it seems to follow that the former are most numerous 

 (p. 96.). 



That the neuter ants, like those of the hive-bee, are imperfectly organised 

 females, appears from the following observation of M. Huber (Nouv. Observ. &c. 

 ii. 443.) " Les fourmis nous ont encore offert h cet e'gard une analogic tres- 

 frappante ; a. la verite', nous n'avons jamais vu pondre les ouvrieres, mais nous avons 

 ete temoins de leur accouplement. Ce fait pourroit etre atteste par plusieurs 

 membres de la Societe d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve, a qui nous 1'avons fait voir ; 

 1'approche du male etoit toujours suivie de la mort de 1'ouvriere ; leur conformation 

 ne permet done pas qu'elles deviennent meres, mais 1'instinct du male prouve du 

 moins que ce sont des femelles." 



3 Gould, 103. 



* M. Huber calls this an apterous female ; yet he could not discover that they 

 laid eggs; and he owns that they more nearly resemble the workers than the 

 females, and that he should have considered them as such, had he seen them mix 

 with them in their excursions. Huber, p. 251. 



