342 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
In this country it is commonly in March, earlier or later according to 
the season, that ants first make their appearance, and they continue their 
labours till the middle or latter end of October. They emerge usually 
from their subterranean winter-quarters on some sunny day ; when, 
assembling in crowds-on the surface of the formicary, they may be ob. 
served in continual motion, walking incessantly over it and one another, 
without departing from home ; as if their object, before they resumed 
their employments, was to habituate themselves to the action of the ajy 
and sun.’ This preparation requires a few days, and then the business of 
the year commences. The earliest employment of ants is most probably 
to repair the injuries which their habitation has received during their state 
of inactivity: this observation more particularly applies to the hill-ant 
(4. rufa), all the upper stories of whose dwellings are generally laid flat 
by the winter rains and snow; but every species, it may well be sup. 
posed, has at this season some deranged apartments to restore to order, 
or some demolished ones to rebuild. 
After their annual labours are begun, few are ignorant how incessantly 
ants are engaged in building or repairing their habitations, in collecting 
provisions, and in the care of their young brood ; but scarcely any are 
aware of the extent to which their activity is carried, and that their 
labours are going on even in the night. Yet this is a certain fact. Long 
ago Aristotle affirmed that ants worked in the night when the moon was 
at the full? ; and their historian Gould observes, “that they even exceed 
the painful industrious bees. For the ants employ each moment, by day 
and night, almost without intermission, unless hindered by excessive 
rains.” * M. Huber also, speaking of a mason-ant, not found with us, 
tells us that they work after sunset, and in the night.4 To these I can 
add some observations of my own, which fully confirm these accounts. 
My first were made at nine o’clock at night, when I found the inhabitants 
of'a nest of the red ant (Myrmica rubra) very busily employed; I repeated 
the observation, which I could conveniently do, the nest being in my 
garden, at various times from that hour till twelve, and always found 
some going and coming, even while a heavy rain was falling. Having in 
the day noticed some Aphides upon a thistle, I examined it again in the 
night, at about eleven o’clock, and found my ants busy milking their 
cows, which did not for the sake of repose intermit their suction. At 
the same hour another night, I observed the little negro-ant (FF. fusca) 
engaged in the same employment upon an elder. About two miles from 
my residence was a nest of Gould’s hill-ant (F. rufa), which, according to 
M. Huber, shut their gates, or rather barricade them, every night, and 
remain at home.> Being desirous of ascertaining the accuracy of his 
statement, early in October, about two o’clock one morning, I visited 
this nest in company with an intelligent friend ; and to our surprise and 
admiration we found our ants at work, some being engaged in carrying 
their usual burden, sticks and straws, into their habitation, others going 
out from it, and several were climbing the neighbouring oaks, doubtless 
to milk their Aphides. The number of comers and goers at that hour, 
however, was nothing compared with the myriads that may always be 
1 Gould, 67. De Geer, ii, 1054, 2 Hist. Animal. 1, ix. ¢. 38. 
5 Gould, 68, * Huber 36. 42, 
5 Huber, 28. 
