PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



49 



to receive her again. Yet this inattention after oviposition is 

 not invariable; the female and neuter sometimes unite to- 

 gether in the same cell after the eggs are laid. On this occa- 

 sion the workers divide their attention ; and if you disturb 

 them, some will run to the defence of their queen, as well as 

 of the eggs, which last, however, are the great objects of their 

 solicitude. This statement differs somewhat from M. Huber's ; 

 but different species vary in their instincts, which will account 

 for this and similar dissonances in authors who have observed 

 their proceedings. Mr. Gould also noticed but very few 

 females in ant-nests, sometimes only one; but M. Huber, 

 who had better opportunities, found several, which he says live 

 very peaceably together, showing none of that spirit of rivalry 

 so remarkable in the queen bee. 



And here I must close my narrative of the life and ad- 

 ventures of male and female ants ; but, as it will be followed 

 by a history of the still more interesting proceedings of the 

 workers, I think you will not regret the exchange. I shall 

 show these to you in many different views, under each of 

 which you will find fresh reason to admire them and their 

 wonderful instincts. My only fear will be lest you should 

 think the picture too highly coloured, and deem it incredible 

 that creatures so minute should so far exceed the larger ani- 

 mals in wisdom, foresight, and sagacity, and make so near an 

 approach in these respects to man himself. My facts, how- 

 ever, are derived from authorities so respectable, that I think 

 they will do away with any bias of this kind that you may 

 feel in your mind. 1 



I need not here repeat what I have said in a former letter 

 concerning the exemplary attention paid by these kind foster- 

 mothers to the young brood of their colonies ; nor shall I 

 enlarge upon the building and nature of their habitations, 

 which have been already noticed : — but, without either of 

 these, I have matter enough to fill the rest of this letter with 



1 It may be thought that many of the anecdotes related in the following his- 

 tory of the proceedings of neuter ants could not have been observed by any one, 

 unless he had been admitted into an ant-hill ; but it must be recollected that 

 M. P. Huber, from whose work the most extraordinary facts are copied, invented 

 a kind of ant-hive, so constructed as to enable him to observe their proceedings 

 without disturbing them. 



VOL. II. E 



