214 ANTS NOT INJURF.D BY COLD. 



them, exposed to view multitudes of the yellow species 

 (formica flava) in their winter's retirement. They were 

 collected in numbers in little cells and compartments, 

 communicating with others by means of narrow pas- 

 sages. In many of the cells they had deposited their 

 larvae, which they were surrounding and attending, but 

 not brooding over or covering. Being disturbed by our 

 rude operations, they removed them from our sight to 

 more hidden compartments. The larvae were small. 

 Some of these ant-hills contained multitudes of the 

 young of the woodlouse (oniscus armadillo), inhabiting 

 with perfect familiarity the same compartments as the 

 ants, crawling about with great activity with them, and 

 perfectly domesticated with each other. They were 

 small and white ; but the constant vibration of their 

 antennas, and the alacrity of their motions, manifested 

 a healthy vigor. The ants were in a somewhat torpid 

 state; but on being removed into a temperate room, 

 they assumed much of their summer animation. How 

 these creatures are supported during the winter season 

 it is difficult to comprehend, as in no one instance could 

 we perceive any store or provision made for the supply 

 of their wants. The minute size of the larva? manifested 

 that they had been recently deposited ; and consequently 

 that their parents had not remained during winter in a 

 dormant state, and thus free from the calls of hunger. 

 The preceding month of February, and part of January, 

 had been remarkably severe ; the frost had penetrated 

 deep into the earth, and long held it frozen ; the ants 

 were in many cases not more than four inches beneath 

 the surface, and must have been inclosed in a mass of 

 frozen soil for a long period ; yet they, their young, and 

 the onisci, were perfectly uninjured by it ; affording an- 

 other proof of the fallacy of the commonly received 

 opinion, that cold is universally destructive to insect 

 life. Some creatures may be injured or destroyed by 

 frost, but the larger portion of them nature has provided 

 with constitutions to which it is innocuous", or furnished 

 with instinct to prevent its harming them. These 

 emmets had probably received no substance, or required 

 any, from the time of their retirement in the autumn, a 



