PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 55 
Huber has found incipient colonies, in which were only 
a few workers engaged with their mother in the care ofa 
small number of larvze; and M. Perrot, his friend, once 
discovered a small nest, occupied by a solitary female, 
who was attending upon four pupze only. Such is the 
foundation and first establishment of those populous 
nations of ants with which we every where meet. 
But though the majority of females produced in a nest 
probably thus desert it, all are not allowed this liberty. 
The prudent workers are taught by their instinct that the 
existence of their community depends upon the presence 
of a sufficient number of females. Some therefore that 
are fecundated in or near the spot they forcibly detain, 
pulling off their wings, and keeping them prisoners till 
they are ready to lay their eggs, or are reconciled to their 
fate. De Geer in a nest of F. rufa observed that the 
workers compelled some females that were come out of the 
nest, to re-enter it?; and from M. P. Huber we learn 
that, being seized at the moment of fecundation, they are 
conducted into the interior of the formicary, when they 
become entirely dependent upon the neuters, who hang- 
ing pertinaciously to each leg prevent their going out, but 
at the same time attend upon them with the greatest care, 
feeding them regularly, and conducting them where the 
temperature is suitable to them, but never quitting them a 
single moment. By degrees these females become recon- 
ciled to their fate, and lose all desire of making their 
escape ;—their abdomen enlarges, and they are no longer 
their wings, make themselves a subterranean cell, some singly, others 
in conmon. From which it appears that some colonies have more than 
one female, from their first establishment. a LOZ), 
