64 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



however, must be fine, and the thermometer must stand at 

 above 36° in the shade. Previously to marching there is. 

 reason to think that they send out scouts to explore the 

 vicinity ; upon whose return they emerge from their subter- 

 ranean city, directing their course to the quarter from which 

 the scouts came. They have various preparatory signals, 

 such as pushing each other with the mandibles or forehead, or 

 playing with the antennas ; the object of which is probably to 

 excite their martial ardour, to give the word for marching, or 

 to indicate the route they are to take. The advanced guard 

 usually consists of eight or ten ants ; but no sooner do these 

 get beyond the rest than they move back, wheeling round in 

 a semicircle, and mixing with the main body, while others 

 succeed to their station. They have u no captain, overseer, or 

 ruler? as Solomon observes, their army being composed 

 entirely of neuters, without a single female : thus all in their 

 turns take their place at the head, and then, retreating 

 towards the rear, make room for others. This is the usual 

 order of their march ; and the object of it may be to commu- 

 nicate intelligence more readily from one part of the column 

 to another. 



When winding through the grass of a meadow they have 

 proceeded to thirty feet or more from their own habitation, 

 they disperse ; and, like dogs with their noses, explore 

 the ground with their antennas to detect the traces of the 

 game they are pursuing. The negro formicary, the object of 

 their search, is soon discovered : some of the inhabitants are. 

 usually keeping guard at the avenues, which dart upon the 

 foremost of their assailants with inconceivable fury. The 

 alarm increasing, crowds of its swarthy inhabitants rush forth 

 from every apartment : but their valour is exerted in vain ; 

 for the beseigers, precipitating themselves upon them, by the 

 ardour of their attack compel them to retreat within, and seek 

 shelter in the lowest story ; great numbers entering with 

 them at the gates, while others with their mandibles make a 

 breach in the walls, through which the victorious army 

 marches into the besieged city. In a few minutes, by the 

 same passages, they as hastily evacuate it, each carrying off 

 in its mouth a larva or pupa which it has seized in spite of its 



