42 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



published a most admirable and interesting work upon them, 

 in which he has far outstripped all his predecessors. Such 

 are the sources from which the following account of ants is 

 jDrincipally drawn, intermixed with which you will find some 

 occasional observations — which your partiality to your friend 

 may, perhaps, induce you to think not wholly devoid of in- 

 terest — that it has been my fortune to make. 



The societies of ants, as also of other Hymenoptera, differ 

 from those of the Termites in having inactive larvae and pupae, 

 the neuters or workers combining in themselves both the 

 military and civil functions. Besides the helpless larvae and 

 pupae, which have no locomotive powers, these societies con- 

 sist of females, males, and workers. The office of the females, 

 at their first exclusion distinguished by a pair of ample wings, 

 (which, however, as you have heard, they soon cast,) is the 

 foundation of new colonies, and the furnishing of a constant 

 supply of eggs for the maintenance of the population in the 

 old nests as well as in the new. These are usually the least 

 numerous part of the community. 1 The office of the males, 

 which are also winged, and at the time of swarming are 

 extremely numerous, is merely the impregnation of the fe- 

 males : after the season for this is past, they die. Upon the 

 workers' 1 devolves, except in nascent colonies, all the work, as 

 well as the defence of the community, of which they are the 

 most numerous portion. In some societies of ants the 

 workers are of two dimensions. In the nests of F. rufa and 

 flava such were observed by Gould, the size of one exceeding 

 that of the other about one third. 3 (In my specimens, the 

 large workers of F. rufa are nearly three times, and of F. flava 



' 1 Gould says that the males and females are nearly equal in number (p. 62.) ; 

 but from Huber's observations it seems to follow that the former are most 

 numerous (p. 96. ). 



2 That the neuter ants, like those of the hive-bee, are imperfectly organised 

 females, appears from the following observation of M. Huber (Nouv. Observ. &c. 

 ii. 443.) — " Les fourmis nous ont encore offert a, cet egard une analogie tres- 

 frappante ; a la verite, nous n'avons jamais vu pondre les ouvrieres, mais nous 

 avons ete temoins de leur accouplement. Ce fait pourroit etre atteste par 

 plusieurs membres de la Societe d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve, a, qui nous 

 l'avons fait voir; l'approche du male etoit toujours suivie de la mort de l'ou- 

 vriere ; leur conformation ne permet done pas qu'elles deviennent meres, mais 

 l'instinct du male prouve du moins que ce sont des femelles." 



3 Gould, 103. 



