456 INSECTA. 



Various and apparently irregular galleries lead to the particular residence 

 of their young. 



The neuters roam abroad in search of provisions, appear to inter-commu- 

 nicate the success of their labours by the senses of touch and smell, and to 

 aid and assist each other. Fruit, Insects, or their larvae, dead bodies of 

 small quadrupeds and birds, &c., constitute their food. They feed the 

 larvs with their mouths, transport them in fine weather to the external su- 

 perficies of the hill, in order that they may receive additional warmth, and 

 take them down again on the approach of night or bad weather, defend 

 them from their enemies, and look to their preservation with the greatest 

 fidelity, particularly when the hill is disturbed. They pay equal attention 

 to the nymphs, some of which are enclosed in a cocoon, and the others 

 naked; they tear open the envelope of the former when the moment of their 

 ultimate metamorphosis has arrived. The name of eggs is vulgarly applied 

 to the larvae and nymphs. 



Most Ant-hills are wholly composed of individuals of the same species. 

 Nature, however, has deviated fx-om this plan with respect to the F. roussa- 

 tre or Amazon-ant, and that which I have called the sanguinea. Their 

 neuters, by open violence, procure auxiliaries of their own caste, but of 

 different species, which I have designated by the names of noir-cendr^e and 

 mineuse. When the heat of the day begins to lessen, and exactly at the 

 same hour, at least for several days, the Amazons or Legionaries quit their 

 nest, advance in a sohd column, more or less numerous or according to the 

 extent of the population, and march upon the Ant-hill they wish to attack. 

 They soon penetrate into it notwithstanding the opposition of the inhabit- 

 ants, seize the larv^ and nymphs of the neuters peculiar to the invaded 

 community, and transport them in the same warlike order to their own 

 domicil, where they are attended to in common with the posterity of their 

 conquerors, by other neuters of their own species in a perfect state that 

 have either been metamorphosed there, or tornfrom then* original dwelling. 

 Such is the composition of the mixed Ant-hills. 



It is well known that the Ant is extravagantly fond of a saccharine liquid 

 that exudes from the bodies of the Aphides and Gallinsects. Four or five 

 species convey both these Aphides and their eggs, particularly in bad weather, 

 to the bottom of their nests, and even fight for the right of possession. 

 Some construct little galleries of earth, leading from the Ant-hill, which 

 extend throughout the entire length of trees to the very branches that are 

 loaded with these Insects. 



Both males and females perish towards the close of autumn, or on the 

 first approach of winter. The labourers pass the winter in their hill in a 

 torpid state. 



This gi-eat genus is now divided into various subgenera. 



The remaining Heterogyna are solitary Insects. Each species 

 is composed of but two kinds of individuals, winged males and ap- 



