A LECTURE ON ANTS. Ill 



ity of their occurrence by zoological science, and in the actual details of the 

 case by evidence as trustworthy in many cases as that received in our 

 courts of law.' 



"When we remember how few fish or other inhabitants of the sea are 

 ever seen compared with the countless millions which exist, that not one 

 specimen of some tribes will be seen for many years in succession, and that 

 some tribes are only known to exist because a single specimen or even a 

 single skeleton has been obtained, we may well believe that in the sea, as 

 in heaven and earth, there are more things 'than are known in our philoso- 



A LECTURE ON ANTS. 



Sir John Lubbock lectured recently at the Eoyal Institution, London, on 

 the subject of ants, to a crowded and interested audience. Briefly describ- 

 ing the different species, which in this country amount to some thirty, and 

 in warmer parts of the globe to over seven hundred, the gentleman said 

 that he had under observation thirty nests of over twenty species, no two 

 of which were identical in habits. Most of their time is passed under- 

 ground, and being essentially gregarious, it was difficult to keep them alive 

 by themselves, at any rate without entirely altering their habits. Though 

 much attention had been paid to their habits by distinguished naturalists, 

 so little was at present known that the study offered a most promising field 

 for observation and experiment. Describing the small white legless grubs 

 constituting the larva of ants, and the care with which they are tended, 

 sorted out into sizes, and carried from chamber to chamber by the workers 

 to secure the most suitable amount of warmth and moisture, and the differ- 

 ent sizes into which they develop to produce the queens, the males, and the 

 workers, a differentition which is carried still further in tropical countries, 

 he said their food consisted of small insects, honey, honey-dew, and, indeed, 

 almost any animal of sweet vegetable substance. The small garden ant as- 

 cends bushes to seek out the aphides which infest their leaves. These in- 

 sects are gently tapped with the antennas of the ants, and then give out a 

 drop of sweet fluid, which is at once appropriated as food by the ants. An- 

 other species of ant seeks out the aphides which infest the roots of grass, 

 collect them, and keep them throughout the winter for the spring, an in- 

 stance of forethought which needed more prudence than many savages or 

 even many civilized persons displa3% Many insects lived as guests with the 

 ants, notably beetles, which were tended and carried about like their own 

 larvas, probably because the beetles, like the aphides, emitted some sweet 

 fluid that was edible by the ants. Even ants are subject to parasites, and 

 Sir John described one of his own specimens that since the 14th of October 

 has had a sort of mite adhering to the under side of her head. Different 

 species of ants differ as much in their characteristics as the different races 

 of mankind. Some were gentle and submissive, and were made slaves of 



