370 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



these when a virgin, she is enabled to traverse the fields 

 of ether, surrounded by myriads of the other sex, who 

 are candidates for her favour. But when once connu- 

 bial rights are celebrated the unhappy husband dies, and 

 the widowed bride seeks only how she may provide for 

 their mutual offspring. Panting no more to join the choir 

 of aerial dancers, her only thought is to construct a sub- 

 terranean abode in which she may deposit and attend 

 to her eggs, and cherish her embryo young, till, having 

 passed through their various changes, they arrive at their 

 perfect state, and she can devolve upon them a portion 

 of her maternal cares. Her ample wings, which before 

 were her chief ornament and the instruments of her plea- 

 sure, are now an incumbrance which incommode her in 

 the fulfilment of the great duty uppermost in her mind ; 

 she therefore, without a moment's hesitation, plucks them 

 from her shoulders* Might we not then address females 

 who have families, in words like those of Solomon, " Go 

 to the ant, ye mothers, consider her ways and be wise ? " 



M. P. Huber was more than once witness to this pro- 

 ceeding. He saw one female stretch her wings with a 

 strong effort so as to bring them before her head — she 

 then crossed them in all directions — next she reversed 

 them alternately on each side — at last, in consequence of 

 some violent contortions, the four wings fell at the same 

 moment in his presence. Another, in addition to these 

 motions, used her legs to assist in the work a . 



a Huber, 109.— Gould had long before Huber observed that fe- 

 male ants cast their wings, pp. 59, 62, 64. I have frequently ob- 

 served them, sometimes with only one wing, at others with only frag- 

 ments of the wings ; and again, at others they were so completely 



