ANTS. 97 



of the animals under whose forms he wished to represent 

 them. 



Let us watch that ant. Do you remember we have already 

 met with the ant under the leaves of a white rose-tree, when 

 it was tickling the aphides, in order to make them yield a 

 saccharine liquid of which ants are very fond 1 Here they 

 are in great numbers ; we must be near the ant-hill. 



Three sorts of ants dwell in this little subterraneous city ; 

 the females, the males, and the people ; the people have no 

 sex, and do the work of the community, the males and 

 females do no labour. 



Their subterraneous abode is constructed with much art; 

 little galleries terminate, at intervals, in more extensive places, 

 supported by pUlars ; all this is done with earth and a sort 

 of slime, by means of which the working ants make a mortar. 



This is the busy period of their lives. Both males and 

 females have wings, for they must leave the earth, as it is in 

 the air their nuptials are accomplished. They soon descend 

 from the clouds, as many other lovers do; the males soon die : 

 but the females have many cares ; in the first place, as they 

 stand in no more need of their wings, they tear them off 

 themselves, if they do not happen to prefer having it done 

 by the workers, who would not fail to deprive them of them 

 quickly. In fact, the time for frivolous adornments and 

 pleasures is over ; they have entered upon the serious busi- 

 ness of Hfe ; they must remain upon the ground. The females 

 then wander about through their grotto, and let faU, at 

 hazard, their little eggs,* of which nightingales are so fond , 

 the workers pick them up and gather them together in heaps 

 in the places which separate the galleries. The larvse are 

 soon hatched, and are not long before they spin themselves 

 little cocoons : when the moment comes for their issuing from 

 their confinement, the workers tear the cocoons, and thus 

 facilitate the operation ; then they carefully extend and smooth 

 the wings of the males and females. From these eggs are 

 born, in fe,ct, not only ants of both sexes, but the workers 

 also, who have no vrings : during several days food is brought 

 to the newly bom, and then they are allowed to go out. 



* M. Kan is in error here. The " eggs " which the nightingales eat are really 

 the cocoons in which the pupa attains its perfect state.— Ed. 



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