PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 355 



to congratulate each other when they meet, and to show their regard for 

 the queen ; some of them gently walk over her, others dance round lier : 

 she is generally encircled with a cluster of attendants, who, if you separate 

 them from her, soon collect themselves into a body, and enclose her in 

 the midst." ^ Nay, even if she dies, as if they were unwilling to believe 

 it, they continue sometimes for months the same attentions to her, and 

 treat her with the same courtly formality as if she were alive, and they 

 will brush her and lick her incessantly.^ 



This homage paid by the workers to their queens, according to Gould, 

 is temporary and local ; — when she has laid eggs in any cell, their atten- 

 tions, he observed, seemed to relax, and she became unsettled and uneasy. 

 In the summer months she is to be met with in various apartments in the 

 colony ; and eggs also are to be seen in several places, which induced him 

 to believe that, having deposited a parcel in one, she retires to another for 

 the same purpose, thus frequently changing her situation and attendants. 

 As there are always a number of lodgments void of eggs, but full of 

 ants, she is never at a loss for an agreeable station and submissive retinue; 

 and by the time she has gone her rounds in this manner, the eggs first 

 laid are brought to perfection, and her old attendants are glad to receive 

 her again. Yet this inattention after oviposition is not invariable; the 

 female and neuter sometimes unite together in the same cell after the eggs 

 are laid. On this occasion the workers divide their attention ; and if you 

 disturb them, some will run to the defence of their queen, as well as of 

 the eggs, which last, however, are the great objects of their solicitude. 

 This statement differs somewhat from M. Ruber's ; but different species 

 vary in their instincts, which will account for this and similar dissonances 

 in authors who have observed their proceedings. Mr. Gould also noticed 

 but very few females in ant-nests, sometimes only one ; but M. Huber, 

 who h&d better opportunities, found several, which he says live very 

 peaceably together, showing none of that spirit of rivalry so remarkable 

 in the queen bee. 



And here I must close my narrative of the life and adventures of male 

 and female ants ; but, as it will be followed by a history of the still more 

 interesting proceedings of the workers, I think you will not regret the 

 exchange. I shall show these to you in many different views, under each 

 of which you will find fresh reason to admire them and their wonderful 

 instincts. My only fear will be lest you should think the picture too 

 highly colored, and deem it incredible that creatures so minute should so 

 far exceed the larger animals in wisdom, foresight, and sagacity, and 

 make so near an approach in these respects to man himself. My facts, 

 however, are derived from authorities so respectable, that I think they 

 will do away with any bias of this kind that you may feel in your n^iind."* 



I need not here repeat what I have said in a former letter concerning 

 the exemplary attention paid by these kind foster-mothers to the young 

 brood of their colonies ; nor shall I enlarge upon the building and nature 



1 Gould, p. 24—. * Compare Gould, p. 25., with Huber, 125. note (1). 



' It may be thought that many of the anecdotes related in the following history of the 

 proceedings of neuter ants could not have been observed by any one, unless he had been 

 admitted into an ant-hill; but it must be recollected that M. P. Huber, from whose work 

 the most extraordinary facts are copied, invented a kind of ant-hive, so constructed as to 

 enable him to observe their proceedings without disturbing them. 



