PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS, 33 
conveying the eggs when laid to what Smeathman calls 
the nurseries, and feeding the young larvee till they are 
old enough to take care of themselves. They are di- 
stinguished from the soldiers by their diminutive size, 
by their round heads and shorter mandibles. 
2. The nymphs or pupse. ‘These were not noticed by 
Smeathman, who mistook the neuters for them :—they 
differ in nothing from the larvee, and probably are equally 
active, except that they have rudiments of wings, or ra- 
ther the wings folded up in cases (Pterothece). ‘They 
were first observed by Latreille ; nor did they escape the 
author of the MS. above alluded to, who mistook them 
for a different kind of larvee. 
3. The neuters, erroneously called by Smeathman 
pupe. These are much less numerous than the work- 
ers, bearing the proportion of one to one hundred, and 
exceeding them greatly in bulk. They are also distin- 
guishable by their long and large head, armed with very 
long subulate mandibles. Their office is that of sentinels ; 
and when the nest is attacked, to them is committed the 
task of defending it. These neuters are quite unlike those 
in the Hymenoptera perfect societies, which seem to be a 
kind of abortive females, and there is nothing analogous 
to them in any other department of Entomology. 
4, and 5. Males and females, or the insects arrived at 
their state of perfection, and capable of continuing the 
species. There is only one of each in every separate 
society; they are exempted from all participation in the 
labours and employments occupying the rest of the com- 
munity, that they may be wholly devoted to the fur- 
nishing of constant accessions to the population of the 
colony. Though at their first disclosure from the pupa 
VOL. If. D 
