PERFECT SOCIETIES OF IXSECTS. 307 



the first class of perfect societies j I shall now relate to you some further 

 particulars of their history, which will, I hope, give you a better opinion 

 of them. 



The majority of these animals are natives of tropical countries, though 

 two species are indigenous to Europe ; one of which, thought to have 

 been imported, is come so near to us as Bordeaux. The fullest account 

 hitherto given of their history is that of Mr. Smeathman, in the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions for 1781, which, since it has in many particulars been 

 confirmed by the observations of succeeding naturalists, though in some 

 things he was evidently mistaken, I shall abridge for you, correcting him 

 where he appears to be in error, and adding from Latreille, and the MS. 

 of a French naturalist resident on the spot, kindly furnished by Professor 

 Hooker, what they have observed with respect to those of Bordeaux and 

 Ceylon. The white ants, though they belong to the Neuroptera order, 

 borrow their instinct from the hymenopterous social tribes, and in con- 

 junction with the ants (Formica} connect the two orders. Their societies 

 consist of five descriptions of individuals workers or larvae nymphs or 

 pupae neuters or soldiers males and females. 



1. The workers or larvae, answering to the hymenopterous neuters, are 

 the most numerous and at the same time the most active part of the com-* 

 munity, upon whom devolves the office of erecting and repairing the 

 buildings, collecting provisions, attending upon the female, conveying the 

 eggs when laid to what Smeathman calls the nurseries, and feeding the 

 young larvae till they are old enough to take care of themselves. They 

 are distinguished from the soldiers by their diminutive size, by their round 

 heads and shorter mandibles. 



2. The nymphs or pupae. These were not noticed by Smeathman, who 

 mistook the neuters for them : they differ in nothing from the larvae, 

 and probably are equally active, except that they have rudiments of wings, 

 or rather the wings folded up in cases (pterothecte}. They were first 

 observed by Latreille ; nor did they escape the author of the MS. above 

 alluded to, who mistook them for a different kind of larvae. 



3. The neuters, erroneously called by Smeathman pupae. These are 

 much less numerous than the workers, bearing the proportion of one to 

 one hundred, and exceeding them greatly in bulk. They are also distin- 

 guishable by their long and large head, armed with very long subulate 

 mandibles. Their office is that of sentinels ; and when the nest is attacked, 

 to them is committed the task of defending it. These neuters are quite 

 unlike those in the Hymenoptera perfect societies, which seem to be a kind 

 of abortive females, and there is nothing analogous to them in any other 

 department of Entomology. 



4. and 5. Males and females, or the insects arrived at their state of 

 perfection, and capable of continuing the species. There is only one of 

 each in every separate society ; they are exempted from all participation 

 in the labours and employments occupying the rest of the community, 

 that they may be wholly devoted to the furnishing of constant accessions 

 to the population of the colony. Though at their first disclosure from 

 the pupa they have four wings, like the female ants they soon cast them ; 

 but they may then be distinguished from the blind larvae, pupae, and 

 neuters, by their large and prominent eyes. 1 



1 The neuters in all respects bear a stronger analogy to the larvae than to the 

 perfect insects ; and, after all, may possibly turn out to be larvae, perhaps of the 



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