330 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS, 



those ants I kept in confinement,' says he, ' I ob- 

 served that considerable bustle prevailed when any of 

 the pupsc were about to quit the cocoon. For the 

 most part two or three stationed themselves on 

 or near each cocoon. From seeing, more than 

 once, two engaged in the operation, I placed 

 in a wine-glass, with a little moistened earth, 

 one of the yellow ants {Formica flava), with 

 three or four pupae; the first object with this little 

 creature was that of excavating a chamber for the 

 deposition of its treasure. The pupaj were then 

 brought up, and laid on the surface of the earth from 

 day to day, to receive the sun's warmth. In a few 

 days I saw the scattered remnants of one of the 

 cocoons, and the worker, with his assistant, engaged 

 in giving liberty to the remaining ants. I did not, 

 at the time, notice whether the pupce were or were 

 not capable of eflecting their own liberation; but ac- 

 cording to the statement of De Geer, the pupa) dies 

 when neglected by the workers.'* 



The latter circumstance is contradicted by the 

 testimony of Swammcrdam, one of the highest 

 authorities which could be adduced. The species he 

 describes as flesh-coloured, and he w-as not a little 

 surprised that they spun a cocoon like the silk-worm. 

 ' This web,' he says, ' was of an oval figure, and 

 wrought with delicate and fine threads about the 

 body, being of a rusty iron colour, and when I opened 

 it I found a pupa in the interior. I likewise carried 

 some of these enclosed pupai to Amsterdam, which 

 after some days gnawed their way out of their webs, 

 and produced some male ants: this happened on the 

 eighteenth of July.'t It is obvious, therefore, that 

 at least some species can extricate themselves with- 

 out assistance; though this seems to be the regular 

 process. 



* Notes to Iluber, p. 87. 



t Swammcrdam, Biblia Nat., vol. i, p. 180. 



