120 SUPPLEMENT ON 



contrary, appears to have been made to secure the fecunda- 

 tion of vegetables, by transporting from one to the other the 

 pollen of their flowers, which the winds alone could not as 

 certainly have propagated. She alone has a brush and bas- 

 ket to collect this pollen, a species of syphon to draw in the 

 honey, and special internal organs where it is received, ela- 

 borated, and converted into wax. The radii which she con- 

 structs are disposed upon a vertical plane, and furnished on 

 both sides with alveoli ; while those of the wasps are always 

 horizontal, and present but a single range of cells. The so- 

 ciety of wasps is temporary ; that of bees, whose regime is 

 monarchical, is durable, and only ceases from accidental cir- 

 cumstances. Our domestic bee can live in every climate : it 

 can brave the wintry breath of Siberia, and the heats of the 

 torrid zone. 



The societies of which we have been speaking hitherto are 

 all composed of individuals of the same species; but two 

 sorts of ants, commonly called the red and the sanguine, pre- 

 sent us, in this respect, with a very singular fact, for the 

 observation of which we are indebted to the younger Huber. 

 The societies of these insects are mixed. There are found 

 amongst them, besides the three sorts of ordinary individuals, 

 some neuters proceeding from one or even from two other 

 species of ants, carried away from their habitations in the 

 larva or nymph state. The neuters of the reddish species 

 compose a population of warriors, from which circumstance 

 they are termed Amazons and Legionaries by M. Huber. To- 

 wards the moment in which the heat of the day begins to 

 decline, if the weather be favourable, and regularly at the 

 same hour, at least for many consecutive days, these ants 

 quit their nests, advance in a serried column, more or less 

 numerous according to the population, proceed towards the 

 ant-hill which they intend to invade, enter in spite of the 

 resistance of the proprietors, seize with their jaws tlie larva? 



