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, anda 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 larve, 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 singuiar 
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 antenne. Thus we find thirteen in the male, twelve only in 
the female, and twelve in the neuter. In the male ant, the abdomen 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 o: the 
neuter are so nearly similar in appearance, that Latreille declares that he 
was unzble 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 ; acircumstance 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 
