PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS, 87 
of our slave-dealers, relate principally to the rufescent 
species; for the sanguine ants are not altogether so list- 
less and helpless; they assist their negroes in the con- 
struction of their nests, they collect their sweet fluid from 
the Aphides; and one of their most usual occupations is 
to lie in wait for a small species of ant, on which they 
feed; and when their nest is menaced by an enemy, they 
show their value for these faithful servants by carrying 
them down into the lowest apartments, as to a place of 
the greatest security. Sometimes even the rufescents rouse 
themselves from the torpor that usually benumbs them. 
In one instance, when they wished to emigrate from their 
own to a deserted nest, they reversed what usually takes 
place on such occasions, and carried all their negroes 
themselves to the spot they had chosen. At the first 
foundation also of their societies by impregnated females, 
there is good reason for thinking, that, like those of other 
species*, they take upon themselves the whole charge of 
the nascent colony. I must not here omit a most extra- 
ordinary anecdote related by M. Huber. He put into 
one of his artificial formicaries pupze of both species of 
the slave-collecting ants, which, under the care of some 
negroes introduced with them, arrived at their imago 
state, and lived together under the same roof in the most 
perfect amity. 
These facts show what effects education will produce 
even upon insects; that it will impart to them a new bias, 
and modify in some respects their usual instincts, ren- 
dering them familiar with objects which, had they been 
educated at home, they would have feared, and causing 
> Vorb. 4th Ed. 369. 
