842 INSECTA — ANT. 



case, however, is not similar with respect to the gall-nut that grows in 

 autumn. The cold weather frequently comes on before the worm is trans- 

 formed into a fly, or before the fly can pierce through its enclosure. The 

 nut falls with the leaves, and although you may imagine that the fly which 

 lies within is lost, yet in reality it is not so ; on the contrary, its being cov- 

 ered up so close is the means of its preservation. Thus it spends the winter 

 in a warm house, where every crack and cranny of the nut is well stopped 

 up ; and lies buried, as it were, under a heap of leaves, which preserve it 

 from the injuries of the weather. This apartment, however, though so com- 

 modious a retreat in the winter, is a perfect prison in the spring. The fly, 

 roused out of its lethargy by the first heats, breaks its way through, and 

 ranges where it pleases. A very small aperture is sufficient, since at this 

 time the fly is but a diminutive creature. Besides, the ringlets whereof its 

 body is composed, dilate, and become pliant in the passage. 



THE ANT. 



The common ants of Europe^ are of two or three different kinds ; some 

 red, some black, some with stings, and others without. Such as have stings 

 inflict their wounds in that manner ; such as are unprovided with these 

 weapons of defence have a power of spurting, from their hinder parts, an 

 acid, pungent liquor, which, if it lights upon the skin, inflames and burns it 

 like nettles. 



The body of an ant is divided into the head, breast, and belly. In the 

 head the eyes are placed, which are entirely black, and under the eyes there 

 are two small horns, or feelers, composed of twelve joints, all covered with 

 a fine silky hair. The mouth is furnished with two crooked jaws, which 

 project outwards, in each of which are seen incisors, that look like teeth. 

 The breast is covered with a fine silky hair, from which project six legs, that 

 are pretty strong and hairy ; the extremities of each armed with two small 

 claws, which the animal uses in climbing. The belly is more reddish than 

 the rest of the body, which is of a brown chesnut color, shining as a glass, 

 and covered with extremely fine hair. 



As soon as the winter is past, on the first fine day in April, the ant-hill, 

 that before seemed a desert, now swarms with new life, and myriads of these 

 insects are seen just awaked from their annual lethargy, and preparing for 

 the pleasures and fatigues of the season. For the first day they never offer 

 to leave the hill, which maybe considered as their citadel, but run over every 

 part of it, as if to examine its present situation, to observe what injuries it 

 has sustained during the rigors of winter, while they slept, and to meditate 

 and settle the labors of the day ensuing. 



1 FormicaricB. 



