AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 363 



education of the young of most of those insects which live 

 in society, truly extraordinary, and without parallel in 

 any other department of nature: namely, that this office, 

 except under particular circumstances, is not undertaken 

 by the female which has given birth to them, but by the 

 workers, or neuters as they are sometimes called, which, 

 though bound to the offspring of the common mother of 

 the society by no other than fraternal ties, exhibit towards 

 them all the marks of the most ardent parental affection, 

 building habitations for their use, feeding them and tend- 

 ing them with incessant solicitude, and willingly sacrifi- 

 cing their lives in defence of the precious charge. Thus 

 sterility itself is made an instrument of the preservation 

 and multiplication of species ; and females too fruitful to 

 educate all their young, are indulged by Providence with 

 a privilege without which nine tenths of their progeny 

 must perish. 



The most determined despiser of insects and their con- 

 cerns — he who never deigned to open his eyes to any 

 other part of their economy — must yet have observed, 

 even in spite of himself, the remarkable attachment which 

 the inhabitants of a disturbed nest of ants manifest to- 

 wards certain small white oblong bodies with which it is 

 usually stored. He must have perceived that the ants are 

 much less intently occupied with providing for their own 

 safety, than in carrying off these little bodies to a place of 

 security. To effect this purpose the whole community is 

 in motion, and no danger can divert them from attempt- 

 ing its accomplishment. An observer having cut an ant 

 in two, the poor mutilated animal did not relax in its af- 

 fectionate exertions. With that half of the body to which 



