56 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS* 



a particular reason, having produced heat, by means of a 

 flambeau, in a certain part of an artificial formicary, the ants 

 that happened to be in that quarter, after enjoying it for a 

 time, hastened to convey the welcome intelligence to their 

 compatriots, whom they even carried suspended upon their 

 jaws (their usual mode of transporting each other) to the 

 spot, till hundreds might be seen thus laden with their 

 friends. 



If ants feel the force of love, they are equally susceptible 

 of the emotions of anger ; and when they are menaced or 

 attacked, no insects show a greater degree of it. Providence, 

 moreover, has furnished them with weapons and faculties 

 which render it extremely formidable to their insect enemies, 

 and sometimes, as I have related in a former letter, a great 

 annoyance to man himself. Two strong mandibles arm their 

 mouth, with which they sometimes fix themselves so obsti- 

 nately to the object of their attack, that they will sooner be 

 torn limb from limb than let go their hold ; and after their 

 battles, the head of a conquered enemy may often be seen 

 suspended to the antennas or legs of the victor, a trophy of 

 his valour, which, however troublesome, he will be compelled 

 to carry about with him to the day of his death. Their 

 abdomen is also furnished with a poison-bag (Ioterium), in 

 which is secreted a powerful and venomous fluid, long cele- 

 brated in chemical researches, and called formic acid x , which 

 when their enemy is beyond the reach of their mandibles (I 

 speak here particularly of the hill-ant, or F. rufa), standing 

 erect on their hind legs, they ejaculate from their anus with 

 considerable force, so that from the surface of the nest ascends 

 a shower of poison, exhaling a strong sulphureous odour, 

 sufficient to overpower or repel any insect or small animal. 

 Such is the fury of some species, that with the acid, accord- 

 ing to Gould 2 , they sometimes partly eject, drawing it back 

 however directly, the poison-bag itself. If a stick be stuck 

 into one of the nests of the hill-ant, it is so saturated with 



1 This acid may be prepared artificially, and with all the properties of that pro- 

 duced by ants, by distillation from a mixture of sulphuric acid, black oxide of 

 manganese, and starch. 



? P. 34. 



