118 INSECTA. 
form in the neuters; the maxillz and labium are smalls; the palpi 
are filiform, and those of the maxillz the longest; the thorax is com- 
pressed laterally, and the almost ovoidal abdomen furnished, in the 
females and neuters, sometimes with a sting, and sometimes with 
glands in the vicinity of the anus, that secrete a particular acid called 
formic. 
They form communities which are frequently extremely numer- 
ous. Each species consists of three kinds of individuals: males and 
females which are furnished with long wings, less veined than those 
of the other Hymenoptera of this section, and very deciduous; and 
neuters, destitute of wings, which are merely females with imper- 
fect ovaries. The males and females are merely found within the 
domicil in transitu. They leave it the moment their wings are 
developed. The males, much inferior in size to the females, and with 
a proportionally smaller head and mandibles, fecundate them in the 
air, where they form numerous swarms and soon after perish 
without returning to their natal hill, where their presence is no 
longer requisite. The females, now ready to become mothers, wan- 
der to a distance from their birth-place, and having detached their 
wings by means of their feet, found a new colony. Some of those 
however which are in the vicinity of the ant-hills are arrested by 
the neuters who force them to return to their domicil, tear off their 
wings, prevent them from leaving it, and force them to deposit 
their eggs there—it is thought, however, that they are violently ex- 
pelled the moment that operation is effected. 
The neuters, which are distinct, not only by the want of wings 
and ocelli, but also by the size of their head, the strength of their 
mandibles, their more compressed and frequently knotted thorax, 
and their proportionally longer legs, have the sole charge of all the 
economy of the habitation, and the rearing of the young. The na- 
ture and form of their nests or ant-hills vary according to the parti- 
cular instinct of the species. They usually establish it in the ground; 
in its construction some only employ particles of earth, and almost 
entirely conceal it; others seize on fragments of various bodies and 
with them raise conical or dome-like hillocks over the spot in which 
they are domiciliated. Some establish their dwelling in the trunks 
of old trees, the interior of which they perforate in every direction 
in the manner of a labyrinth, in which the detached particles are 
also employed. Various and apparently irregular galleries lead to 
the particular residence of their young. 
The neuters roam abroad in search of provisions, appear to inter- 
communicate the success of their labours by the senses of touch and 
smell, and to aid and assist each other. Fruit, Insects, or their 
