208 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



of a passing animal, in addition to all these daily and hourly avocations is 

 superadded the immediate necessity of collecting the pupee from the earth 

 with which they have been mixed, and of restoring the nest to its pristine 

 state. 1 



Nothing can be more curious than the view of the interior of a fully 

 peopled ants' nest in summer. In one part are stored the eggs ; in 

 another the pupae are heaped up by hundreds in spacious apartments ; 

 and in a third we see the larvae surrounded by the workers, some of 

 which feed them, while others keep guard, standing erect upon their hind 

 legs with their abdomen elevated in the position for ejaculating their acid, 

 than which, gunpowder would not be more formidable to the majority of 

 their foes. Some again are occupied in cleaning the alleys from obstruc- 

 tions of various kinds ; and others rest in perfect repose, recruiting their 

 strength for new labours. 



Contrary to what is observed amongst other insects, even the extrica- 

 tion of the young ants from the silken cocoon which incloses them is im- 

 posed upon the workers, who are taught, by some sensation to us incom- 

 prehensible, that the perfect insect is now ready to burst from the shroud, 

 but too weak to effect its purpose unaided. When the workers discover 

 that this period has arrived, a great bustle prevails in their apartment. 

 Three or four mount upon one cocoon, and with their mandibles begin to 

 open it where the head lies. First they pull off a few threads to render 

 the place thinner ; they then make several small openings, and with great 

 patience cut the threads which separate them, one by one, till an orifice 

 is formed sufficiently large for extricating the prisoner ; which operation 

 they perform with the utmost gentleness. The ant is still enveloped in 

 its pellicle ; this the workers also pull off, carefully disengaging every 

 member from its case, and nicely expanding the wings of such as are fur- 

 nished with them. After thus liberating and afterwards feeding the new- 

 born insects, they still for several days watch and follow them everywhere, 

 teaching them to unravel the paths and winding labyrinths of the common 

 habitation 2 ; and when the males and females at length take flight, these 

 affectionate stepmothers accompany them, mounting with them to the 

 summit of the highest herbs, showing the most tender solicitude for them 

 (some even endeavour to retain them), feeding them for the last time, 

 caressing them ; and at length, when they rise into the air and disappear, 

 seeming to linger for some seconds over the footsteps of these favoured 

 beings, of whom they have taken such exemplary care, and whom they will 

 never behold again. 3 



In the above account, exclusive of the bare fact of their laying the eggs, 

 no mention is made of the female ants, the real parents of the republic. 

 You are not from this to suppose that they never feel the influence of this 

 divine principle of love for their offspring. When, indeed, a colony is 

 established and peopled, they have enough to do to furnish it with eggs 



1 The Russian shepherds ingeniously avail themselves of the attachment of ants 

 to their young, for obtaining with little trouble a collection of the pupae, which they 

 sell as a dainty food for nightingales. They scatter an ants' nest upon a dry plot of 

 ground, surrounded with a shallow trench of water, and place on one side of it a few 

 fir branches. Under these the ants, having no other alternative, carefully arrange 

 all their pupae, and in an hour or two the shepherd finds a large heap clean and 

 readv for market. Anderson's Recreations in Agriculture, &c. iv. 158. 



2 Huber, 83. 3 Ibid. 93. 





