44 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



Mexicanus of M. Wesmael, who has described their economy 

 in a paper read to the Academie Royale of Brussels. Of this 

 species, while some of the neuters have the ordinary form, 

 others, which never quit the nest and are almost inactive, have 

 their abdomen swollen into an immense subdiaphanous sphere, 

 filled by a kind of honey which they are solely occupied in 

 elaborating, and which they subsequently discharge into cells 

 analogous to those of bees. 1 



Having introduced you to the individuals of which the 

 associations of ants consist, I shall now advert to the principal 

 events of their history, relating first the fates of the males and 

 females. In the warm days that occur from the end of July 

 to the beginning of September, and sometimes later, the 

 habitations of the various species of ants may be seen to 

 swarm with winged insects, which are the males and females 

 preparing to quit for ever the scene of their nativity and 

 education. Every thing is in motion ; and the silver wings, 

 contrasted with the jet bodies which compose the animated 

 mass, add a degree of splendour to the interesting scene. The 

 bustle increases, till at length the males rise, as it were by a 

 general impulse, into the air, and the females accompany 

 them. The whole swarm alternately rises and falls with a 

 slow movement to the height of about ten feet, the males 

 flying obliquely with a rapid zigzag motion, and the females, 

 though they follow the general movement of the column, ap- 

 pearing suspended in the air, like balloons, seemingly with no 

 individual motion, and having their heads turned towards the 

 wind. 



Sometimes the swarms of a whole district unite their infinite 

 myriads, and, seen at a distance, produce an effect resembling 

 the flashing of an aurora-borealis. Rising with incredible 

 velocity in distinct columns, they soar above the clouds. 

 Each column looks like a kind of slender net-work, and has a 

 tremulous undulating motion, which has been observed to be 

 produced by the regular alternate rising and falling just 

 alluded to. The noise emitted by myriads and myriads of 

 these creatures does not exceed the hum of a single wasp. 



1 Bull. Acad. Roy. Bruxell. v. 771.; quoted by Westwood, ubi supr. ii. 225. 



