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Notices of New Books. 



sort of superintendence over the others, but this function is entirely- 

 unnecessary in a community where all work with a precision and regu- 

 larity resembling the subordinate parts of a piece of machinery. I 

 came to the conclusion at last that they have no very precisely 

 defined function. They cannot, however, be entirely useless to the 

 community, for the sustenance of an idle class of such bulky individuals 

 would be too heavy a charge for the species to sustain. I think they 

 serve, in some sort, as passive instruments of protection to the real 

 workers. Their enormously large, hard and indestructible heads may 

 be of use in protecting them against the attacks of insectivorous 

 animals. They would be, on this view, a kind of "pieces de resist- 

 ance" serving as a foil against onslaughts made on the main body of 

 workers. 



" The third order of workers is the most curious of all. If the top 

 of a small fresh hillock, one in which the thatching process is going 

 on, be taken off, a broad cylindrical shaft is disclosed, at a depth of 

 about two feet from the surface. If this be probed with a stick, which 

 may be done to the extent of three or four feet without touching bottom, 

 a small number of colossal fellows will slowly begin to make their way 

 up the smooth sides of the mine. Their heads are of the same size 

 as the before-mentioned class, but the front is clothed with hairs 

 instead of being polished, and they have in the middle of the forehead 

 a twin ocellus, or simple eye, of quite different structure from the ordi- 

 nary compound eyes on the sides of the head. This frontal eye is 

 totally wanting in the other workers, and is not known in any other 

 kind of ant. 



"The apparition of these strange creatures from the cavernous depths 

 of the mine reminded me, when I first observed them, of the Cyclopes 

 of Homeric fable. They were not very pugnacious, as I feared they 

 would be, and I had no difficulty in securing a few with my fingers. 

 I never saw them under any other circumstances than those here 

 related, and what their special functions may be I cannot divine. 



" The whole arrangement of a Formicarium or ant-colony, and all 

 the varied activity of ant life, are directed to one main purpose, — 

 the perpetuation and dissemination of the species. Most of the labour 

 which we see performed by the workers has for its end the sustenance 

 and welfare of the young brood which are helpless grubs. The true 

 females are incapable of attending to the wants of their offspring ; and 

 it is on the poor sterile workers who are denied all the other pleasures 

 of maternity that the entire care devolves. What a wonderfully organ- 

 ised community is that of the ant ! The workers are also the chief 



