FUNERAL- ANTS. 421 



Yet I have never found a dead Stag-beetle that had not 

 been killed by violence. What becomes of the bodies of the 

 countless millions of creatures that annually pass into their 

 other world is a problem which at present no one seems to be 

 able to solve. 



Still, there are instances where even insects are known to 

 bury their dead, and I scarcely need say that they are to be 

 found among the Ants. 



The story is a very curious one, and is narrated at length in 

 the Journal of the Linncean Society, vol. v. p. 217. 



It happened that a lady found that her little boy was being 

 stung by ants, and she at once killed them and threw their 

 dead bodies away. After some time a number of ants came 

 out of their nest, formed a procession as regularly organized as 

 that of any undertaker's funeral, dug graves for each dead ant, 

 laid the body in it, and covered it up again with earth. 



They carried their organization to such an extent that they 

 even had relays of bearers. But the strangest part of the story 

 is that several worker ants would not assist in the funereal 

 ceremonies. The soldiers at once set on them, killed them, and 

 tumbled them all promiscuously into a common grave. 



Such scenes were repeatedly witnessed by the lady, a Mrs. 

 Hutton, who wrote the account while she was living in New 

 South Wales. 



