342 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



In this country it is commonly in March, earlier or later according to 

 the season, that ants first make their appearance, and they continue their 

 labours till the middle or latter end of October. They emerge usually 

 from their subterranean winter-quarters on some sunny day ; when, 

 assembling in crowds on the surface of the formicary, they may be ob- 

 served in continual motion, walking incessantly over it and one another, 

 without departing from home ; as if their object, before they resumed 

 their employments, was to habituate themselves to the action of the air 

 and sun. 1 This preparation requires a few days, and then the business of 

 the year commences. The earliest employment of ants is most probably 

 to repair the injuries which their habitation has received during their state 

 of inactivity : this observation more particularly applies to the hill-ant 

 (F. rufa), all the upper stories of whose dwellings are generally laid flat 

 by the winter rains and snow ; but every species, it may well be sup- 

 posed, has at this season some deranged apartments to restore to order, 

 or some demolished ones to rebuild. 



After their annual labours are begun, few are ignorant how incessantly 

 ants are engaged in building or repairing their habitations, in collecting 

 provisions, and in the care of their young brood ; but scarcely any are 

 aware of the extent to which their activity is carried, and that their 

 labours are going on even in the night. Yet this is a certain fact. Long 

 ago Aristotle affirmed that ants worked in the night when the moon was 

 at the full 2 ; and their historian Gould observes, "that they even exceed 

 the painful industrious bees. For the ants employ each moment, by day 

 and night, almost without intermission, unless hindered by excessive 

 rains." 3 M. Huber also, speaking of a mason-ant, not found with us, 

 tells us that they work after sunset, and in the night. 4 To these I can 

 add some observations of my own, which fully confirm these accounts. 

 My first were made at nine o'clock at night, when I found the inhabitants 

 of a nest of the red ant (Myrmica rubrd) very busily employed ; I repeated 

 the Observation, which I could conveniently do, the nest being in my 

 garden, at various times from that hour till twelve, and always found 

 some going and coming, even while a heavy rain was falling. Having in 

 the day noticed some Aphides upon a thistle, I examined it again in the 

 night, at about eleven o'clock, and found my ants busy milking their 

 cows, which did not for the sake of repose intermit their suction. At 

 the same hour another night, I observed the little negro-ant (F. fused) 

 engaged in the same employment upon an elder. About two miles from 

 my residence was a nest of Gould's hill-ant (F. rufa), which, according to 

 M. Huber, shut their gates, or rather barricade them, every night, and 

 remain at home. 5 Being desirous of ascertaining the accuracy of his 

 statement, early in October, about two o'clock one morning, I visited 

 this nest in company with an intelligent friend ; and to our surprise and 

 admiration we found our ants at work, some being engaged in carrying 

 their usual burden, sticks and straws, into their habitation, others going 

 out from it, and several were climbing the neighbouring oaks, doubtless 

 to milk their Aphides. The number of comers and goers at that hour, 

 however, was nothing compared with the myriads that may always be 



i Gould, 67. De Geer, ii, 1054. 2 Hist. Animal. 1. ix. c. 38. 



3 Gould, 68. * Huber, 35. 42. 



* Huber, 23. 



