INSECTA— ANT. 843 



At the first display of their forces, none but the wingless tribe appears, 

 while those furnished with wings remain at the bottom. These are the 

 working ants, that first appear, and that are always destitute of wings ; the 

 males and females, that are furnished with four large wings each, are more 

 slow in making their appearance. 



Thus, like bees, they are divided into males and females, and the neutral 

 or working tribe. These are all easily distinguished from each other ; the 

 females are much larger than the males ; the working ants are the smallest 

 of all. The two former have wings, which, however, they sometimes are 

 divested of; the latter never have any, and upon them are devolved all the 

 labors that tend to the welfare of the community. The female also may be 

 distinguished by the color and structure of her breast, which is a little more 

 brown than that of the common ant, and a little brighter than that of the 

 male. 



The neuters exercise all the ordinary 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 the common abode of the tribe. It is they who construct 

 every part of the dwelling place, who attend the hatching of the eggs, the 

 feeding of the larvse, and their removal to different situations, as occasion 

 may require, and who conduct all the operations both of offensive and defen- 

 sive warfare ; in fact, all the laborious and perilous duties of this singular 

 commonwealth. There is every reason, however, to believe that the helots 

 and females of this tribe of insects are originally and substantially of the 

 same sex, and that the developement of the sexual organs in the latter is 

 the consequence of some difference in the circumstances in which the larva 

 is placed during its growth. In all the features of internal structure, the 

 supposed neuters agree with the female, and in the number of articulations 

 composing the antennae. Thus we find thirteen in the male, twelve only in 

 the female, and twelve in the neuter. In the male ant, the abdonien has 

 seven rings, in the female and neuter only six. In the two latter classes, 

 the head is broader, and the mandibles very large and powerful, compared 

 with those of the male, and furnished with serrated edges, and a sharp and 

 often hooked point. The external sexual organs of the female and of the 

 neuter are so nearly similar in appearance, that Latreille declares that he 

 was unable to perceive the least difference between them. On the other 

 hand, it is to be observed, that in the neuter the principal deviation from the 

 model of the female consists in the absence of wings ; a circumstance which 

 may be conceived to be connected with a certain condition of the sexual 

 organs, as are the horns of deer and the beard of men. 



Ants certainly possess a greater share of muscular strength, than almost 

 any other insect of the same size. Of this we are witnesses from childhood 

 in the incessant toil which they undergo, and the great loads they are seen 



