354 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS, 



The females that escape from the injury of tlie elements and their 

 various enemies become the founders of new coloniPs, doing £^11 the work, 

 as I have related in a former letter, that is usually done by the neuters.^ 

 M. P. Huber has found incipient colonies, in which were only a few 

 workers engaged with their mother in the care of a small number of larvae ; 

 and M. Perrot, his friend, once discovered a small nest, occupied by a 

 solitary female, who was attending upon four pupae only. Such are the 

 foundation and first establishment of those populous nations of ants with 

 which we every where meet. 



But though the majority of females produced in a nest probably thus 

 desert it, all are not allowed this liberty. The prudent workers are taught 

 by their instinct that the existence of their community depends upon the 

 presence of a sufficient number of females. Some, therefore, that are 

 fecundated in or near the spot they forcibly detain, pulling off their wings, 

 and keeping them prisoners till they are ready to lay their eggs, or are 

 reconciled to their fate. De Geer in a nest of F. rufa observed that 

 the workers compelled some females that were come out of the nest to 

 re-enter it^ ; and from M. P. Huber we learn that, being seized at the 

 moment of fecundation, they are conducted into the interior of the formi- 

 cary, when they become entirely dependent upon the neuters, who hanging 

 pertinaciously to each leg prevent their going out, but at the same time 

 attetid upon them with the greatest care, feeding them regularly, and 

 conducting them where the temperature is suitable to them, but never 

 quitting them a single moment. By degrees these females become recon- 

 ciled to their fate, and lose all desire of making their escape ; — their 

 abdomen enlarges, and they are no longer detained as prisoners, yet each 

 is still attended by a body-guard — a single ant, which always accompanies 

 her, and prevents her wants. Its station is remarkable, it being mounted 

 upon her abdomen, with its posterior legs upon the ground. These senti- 

 nels are constantly relieved ; and to watch the moment when the female 

 begins the important work of oviposition, and carry off the eggs, of which 

 she lays four or five thousand or more in the course of the year, seems to 

 be their principal office. 



When the female is acknowledged as a mother, the workers begin to 

 pay her a homage very similar to that which the bees render to their queen. 

 All press round her, olTer her food, conduct her by her mandibles through 

 the difficult or steep passages of the formicary ; nay, they sometimes even 

 carry her about their city ; — she is then suspended upon their jaws, the 

 ends of which are crossed ; and, being coiled up like the tongue of a 

 butterfly, she is packed so close as to incommode the carrier but little. 

 When she sets her down, others surround and caress her, one after another 

 tapping her on the head with their antennae. '•' In whatever apartment," 

 says Gould, '' a queen condescends to be present, she commands obedi- 

 ence and respect. An universal gladness spreads itself through the whole 

 cell, which is expressed by particular acts of joy and exultation. They 

 have a particular way of skipping, leaping, and standing upon their hind- 

 legs, and prancing with the others. These frolics they make use of, both 



' M. Huber observes that fecundated fciQales, after they have lost their wings, make 

 themselves a subterranean cell ; some singly, others in common. From which it appears 

 that some colonies have more than one female from their first establishment. 



» ii. 1071. 



