HYMENOPTERA. 387 
larve, the pups, and sometimes those females and the males 
which refuse to follow them. Thus laden, they go their way, 
to seek for another country they may call their own. They 
never forget, in their hurried emigrations, the infirm or sick 
workers, which would perish in the house now abandoned and 
deserted. | 
The males and females lately hatched do not enjoy the same 
liberty as the young workers. They are confined to the ant-hill, 
where they are kept in sight till the day of the general 
departure. It is towards the end of the month of August that 
swarms of winged ants of- both sexes are seen to issue forth, 
The males come out first, agitating their iridescent and trans- 
parent wings. The females, less numerous, follow them closely. 
All of a sudden, one sees this troop raise itself at a given signal, 
and disappear in the air, where the coupling takes place. The 
males perish immediately afterwards. The females. impregnated. 
return to the paternal home, or else found new colonies, with 
the assistance of a few workers who are their escort.. From 
this moment they no longer require wings. The workers. make 
haste to cut them off, or, indeed, which oftenest happens, they 
themselves tear them off. With their wings they lose the desire 
for liberty. Henceforward, they will quit their retreat no more ;. 
the cares of their approaching maternity now alone occupying them. 
The working ants reserve for them subterranean chambers, where 
they are kept in sight by the sentinels. At certain hours only 
are they to be met with in the upper stories. When they, wish 
to walk, a company of guards presses round them. on all sides, 
so as to prevent them from adyancing too.quickly. There are no 
sorts of attentions they do not heap upon them to make them 
forget their captivity. They caress them, brush them, lick them, 
they offer them food continually. On the least appearance of 
danger, the workers take possession, first of all, of the pregnant 
females and drag them out by the secret outlets, so as to put 
in a place of safety their precious persons, the hope of the com- 
munity. The workers’ task is immense, for their labours in- 
crease in the same proportion as the population increases. 
But the division of work and the good understanding which 
exists between the members of the community, allow them ta 
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