338 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
When the population exceeds the produce of a country, or its inhabitants 
suffer oppression, or are not comfortable in it, emigrations frequently take 
place, and colonies issue forth to settle in other parts of the globe; and 
sometimes whole nations leave their own country, either driven to this 
step by their enemies, or excited by cupidity to take possession of what 
appears to them a more desirable residence. These motives operate 
strongly on some insects of the social tribes. Bees and ants are particu. 
larly influenced by them. ‘The former, confined in a narrow hive, when 
their society becomes too numerous to be contained conveniently in it, 
must necessarily send forth the redundant part of their population to seek 
for new quarters; and the latter—though they usually can enlarge their 
dwelling to any dimensions which their numbers may require, and therefore 
do not send forth colonies, unless we may distinguish by that name the de. 
parture of the males and females from the nest —are often disgusted with 
their present habitation, and seek to establish themselves in a new one;— 
either the near neighbourhood of enemies of their own species; annoy- 
ance from frequent attacks of man or other animals ; their exposure to cold. 
or wet from the removal of some species of shelter ; or the discovery of a 
station better circumstanced or more abundant in Aphides ;—all these may 
operate as inducements to them to change their residence. That this is 
the case might be inferred from the circumstance noticed by Gould}, which 
I have also partly witnessed myself, that they sometimes transport their 
young brood to a considerable distance from their home. But M. Huber, 
by his interesting observations, has placed this fact beyond all controversy; 
and his history of their emigrations is enlivened by some traits so singular, 
that I am impatient to relate them toyou, They concern chiefly the great 
hill-ant (#. rufa), though several other species occasionally emigrate, 
Some of the neuters having found a spot which they judge convenient 
for a new habitation, apparently without consulting the rest of the society, 
determine upon an emigration, and thus they compass their intention :— 
The first step is to raise recruits: with this view they eagerly accost 
several fellow citizens of their own order, caress them with their antenna, 
lead them by their mandibles, and evidently appear to propose the journey 
to them. If they seem disposed to accompany them, the recruiting officer, 
for so he may be called, prepares to carry off his recruit, who, suspending 
himself upon his mandibles, hangs coiled up spirally under his nel al 
this passes in an amicable manner after mutual salutations. Sometimes, 
however, the recruiter takes the other by surprise, and drags him from the 
ant-hill without giving him time to consider or resist. When arrived at 
the proposed habitation, the suspended ant uncoils itself,and, quitting its 
conductor, becomes a recruiter in its turn, The pair return to the old 
nest, and each carries off a fresh recruit, which being arrived at the spot 
joins in the undertaking :—thus the number of recruiters keeps pro- 
gtessively increasing, till the path between the new and the old city is full 
of goers and comers, each of the former laden with a recruit. What a 
whole contents of the nest (of course to the very bottom) into a bag, of the contents 
of which he spreads successive portions upon .a cloth so as to allow the ants to 
escape, and afterwards examines what remains at his leisure. M. Markel has re- 
cently published a memoir on the coleopterous insects foundiin-ants’ nests in Saxon 
kav oon amounting to nearly fifty species. (Germat’s Zeitschrift, iii. 203.) 
xould, 42, 
