ORDER IX. HYMENOPTERA.—THE ANTS. 317 
Formica. — The Ants. The whole animal kingdom presents nothing so 
extraordinary and mysterious as the habits, instincts, intelligence, domestic 
character, and social polity of these diminutive creatures. Man stands awe- 
struck and perplexed as he contemplates their wonderful ways, plainly 
revealing as they do the possession of intelligence and reasoning powers, 
which he, in his pride and vanity, has always arrogated to himself as 
a peculiar inheritance. In regard to them the late Professor Godwin 
well remarks : — 
“The history of a tribe of insects so long celebrated for their industry 
and frugality, and for the display of that sagacity which characterizes some 
of the higher orders of animals, is peculiarly calculated to occupy the atten- 
tion of modern naturalists. Ants possess the remarkable peculiarity of a 
threefold distinction of sex —a circumstance which is met with in no other 
order of the animal kingdom, and which appears, as far as observation has 
extended, to be totally excluded from the plan of the vegetable creation. 
Besides the males and females, there exists an apparently intermediate order 
of neuters, which are also denominated laboring or working ants. The 
neuters, thus exempted from every sexual funetion, exercise, on the other 
hand, all the offices necessary for the existence and welfare of the community 
to which they belong. It is they who collect supplies of food, who explore 
the country for this purpose, and seize upon every animal substance, whether 
living or dead, which they can lay hold of and transport to their nest. It 
is they who construct every part of their dwelling-place, who attend to the 
hatching of the eggs, to the feeding of the young, and to their removal, as 
occasion may require, to different situations favorable to their growth and 
development ; and who, both as aggressors and as defenders, fight all the bat- 
tles of the commonwealth, and provide for the safety of their weaker and 
more passive companions. Thus all the laborious and perilous duties of 
the state are performed solely by this description of ants, who act the part 
of helots in these singularly constituted republics of insects.” 
The domestic life of the different species is nearly the same. The birth 
and rearing of the little ones, and the duties of the adults, do not differ 
perceptibly from each other in the various species of ants. The females 
live together in harmony. They lay, without ceasing to walk about, white 
eggs, of cylindrical form and microscopic dimensions. The workers pick 
them up, and carry them to special chambers. In a fortnight after the lay- 
ing, the larva appears. Its body is transparent. A head and wings can 
be made out, but no legs; the mouth is a retractile nipple, bordered by 
rudimentary mandibles, into which the workers disgorge the juices they 
have elaborated in their stomachs; and as they lay by no provision, they 
NO. XIX. 93 
