46 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
But when observers of nature began to examine the 
manners and economy of these creatures more narrowly, 
it was found, at least with respect to the European spe- 
cies of ants, that no such hoards of grain were made by 
them, and, in fact, that they had no magazines in their 
nests in which provisions of any kind were stored up. It 
was therefore surmised thatthe ancients, observing them 
carry about their pupze, which in shape, size, and colour, 
not a little resemble a grain of corn, and the ends of 
which they sometimes pull open to let out the inclosed 
insect, mistook the one for the other, and this action for 
depriving the grain of the coreulum. Mr. Gould, our 
countryman, was one of the first historians of the ant, 
who discovered that they did not store up corn; and 
since ‘his time naturalists have generally subscribed to 
that opinion. 
Till the manners of exotic ants are more accurately 
explored, it would, however, be rash to affirm that no 
ants have magazines of provisions; for although, during 
the cold of our winters in this country, they remain in a 
state of torpidity, and have no need of food, yet in warmer 
regions, during the rainy seasons, when they are probably 
confined to ne nests, a store of provisions may be ne- 
cessary for them. Even in northern climates, against 
wet seasons, they may provide in this way for their sus- 
tenance and that of the young brood, which, as Mr. Smeath- 
man observes, are very voracious, and cannot bear to be 
long deprived of their food; else why do ants carry worms, 
living insects, and many other such things into their nests? 
Solomon’s lesson to the slugeard has been generally ad- 
duced as a strong cauimtnion of the ancient opinion : it 
can, however, only relate to the species of a warm climate, 
° 
