ECONOMY OF THE FORMICID^. 171 



the universal interest that attaches to them, than we 

 shall be able to do with the other groups of the Hymen- 

 optera, or than otherwise our prescribed and limited 

 space would have authorised. 



(154.) The FORMICID^E, or ants, are the next large 

 group of which we shall treat ; but the connection be- 

 tween them and the bees is any thing but apparent, as 

 they seem allied only by their social habits. These 

 habits present us with very many interesting peculiar- 

 ities, which, however, have been studied only in a few 

 European species. To judge from the eccentricities of 

 form presented by the majority of exotic species, we may 

 rationally conclude that their diversities of structure run 

 parallel with differences in their economy and manners. 

 Wherever Nature presents a peculiarity of workmanship, 

 it is not a merely futile display of power, but it has a 

 direct tendency to a specific purpose, which, although 

 not always obvious, is necessarily to be inferred from 

 the unvarying evidence we already possess wherever we 

 can trace it to its object. All the species of this group 

 comprise three individuals ; or sometimes four, if the 

 fourth, where it occurs, may be considered otherwise than 

 as a modification of the third. These consist of males, 

 females, and neuters, or workers ; to which, in some 

 species, another class that of soldiers appears to be 

 added. Whether these neuters, as in the social bees, 

 are to be considered as abortive females; and whether 

 the ants possess the means, like the bees, of supplying 

 any accidental contingency in the nest, by developing 

 the sexual inertness of these neuters, through any par- 

 ticular course of nurture, has not yet been ascertained. 

 There seems to be no 'uniformity, even amongst congeners, 

 in their habits or architecture, for we observe species of 

 the same genus following different modes of life. As 

 amongst the social bees, some possess stings, and some 

 are without these formidable weapons, which are, how- 

 ever, supplied by a very powerful acid secreted by them, 

 and ejected in defence, and which is doubtlessly quite as 

 effectual in protecting them from their natural enemies. 



