PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 369 



ing them here and there, as if too great a charge they soon laid them 

 down again ; most of them died of hunger in less than two days, and 

 the few that remained alive appeared extremely weak and languid. At 

 length, commiserating their condition, he admitted a single negro ; and 

 this little active creature by itself re-established order — made a cell in the 

 earth ; collected the larvae and placed them in it ; assisted the pupae that 

 were ready to be developed ; and preserved the life of the neuter rufes- 

 cents that still survived. What a picture of beneficent industry, con- 

 trasted with the baleful effects of sloth, does this interesting anecdote 

 afford ! Another experiment which he tried made the contrast equally 

 striking. He put a large portion of one of these mixed colonies into a 

 woolen bag, in the mouth of which he fixed a small tube of wood, glazed 

 at the top, which at the other end was fitted to the entrance of a kind of 

 hive. The second day the tube was crowded with negroes going and 

 returning: — the indefatigable diligence and activity manifested by them 

 in transporting the young brood and their refuscent masters, whose bodies 

 were suspended upon their mandibles, was astonishing. These last took 

 no active part in the busy scene, while their slaves showed the greatest 

 anxiety about them, generally carrying them into the hive ; and if they 

 sometimes contented themselves with depositing them at the entrance of 

 the tube, it was that they might use greater dispatch in fetching the rest. 

 The rufescent when thus set down remained for a moment coiled up with- 

 out motion, and then leisurely unrolling itself, looked all around, as if it was 

 quite at a loss what direction to take; — it next went up to the negroes, 

 and by the play of its antennae seemed to implore their succor, till one of 

 them attending to it conducted it into the hive. 



Beings so entirely dependent as these masters are upon their slaves, for 

 every necessary, comfort, and enjoyment of their life, can scarcely be 

 supposed to treat them with rigor or unkindness : — so far from this, it is 

 evident from the preceding details, that they rather look up to them, and 

 are in some degree under their control. 



The above observations, with respect to the indolence of our slave- 

 dealers, relate principally to the rufescent species ; for the sanguine ants 

 are not altogether so listless and helpless; they assist their negroes in the 

 construction of their nests, they collect their sweet fluid from the Aphides; 

 and one of their most usual occupations is to lie in wait for a small species 

 of ant, on which they feed ; and when their nest is menaced by an 

 enemy, they show their value for these faithful servants by carrying thetn 

 down into the lowest apartments, as to a place of the greatest security. 

 Sometimes even the rufescents rouse themselves from the torpor that 

 usually benumbs them. In one instance, when they wished to emigrate 

 from their own to a deserted nest, they reversed what usually takes place 

 on such occasions, and carried all their negroes themselves to the spot 

 they had chosen. At the first foundation also of their societies by im- 

 pregnated females, there is good reason for thinking, that, like those of 

 other species, they take upon themselves the whole charge of the nascent 

 colony. I must not here omit a most extraordinary anecdote related by 

 M. Huber. He put into one of his artificial formicaries pupae of both 

 species of the slave-collecting ants, which, under the care of some negroes 



