PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



85 



dry leaves which are dispersed upon the soil, the claws of 

 their feet producing a slight sound when they lay hold of 

 them. They make in the ground broad paths, well beaten, 

 which may be readily distinguished, and which are formed by 

 the going and coming of innumerable ants, whose custom it 

 is always to travel in the same route." 1 From Huber we 

 further learn that these roads of the hill-ants are sometimes 

 a hundred feet in length, and several inches wide ; and that 

 they are not formed merely by the tread of these creatures v 

 but hollowed out by their labour. 2 Virgil alludes to their 

 tracks in the following animated lines, which, though not 

 altogether correct, are very beautiful : — 



H So when the pismires, an industrious train, 

 Embodied rob some golden heap of grain, 

 Studious ere stormy winter frowns to lay 

 Safe in their darksome cells the treasured prey ; 

 In one long track the dusky legions lead 

 Their prize in triumph through the verdant mead ; 

 Here, bending with the load, a panting throng 

 With force conjoin'd heave some huge grain along. 

 Some lash the stragglers to the task assign'd, 

 Some to their ranks the bands that lag behind : 

 They crowd the peopled path in thick array, 

 Glow at the work, and darken all the way." 



Bonnet, observing that ants always keep the same track both 

 in going from and returning to their nest, imagines that their 

 paths are imbued with the strong scent of the formic acid, 

 which serves to direct them ; but, as Huber remarks, though 

 this may be of some use to them, their other senses must be 

 equally employed, since it is evident, when they have made 

 any discovery of agreeable food, that they possess the means 

 of directing their companions to it, though it is scarcely 

 possible that the path can have been sufficiently impregnated 

 with the acid for them to trace their way to it by scent. 

 Indeed the recruiting system, described above, proves that it 

 requires some pains to instruct ants in the way from an old 

 to a new nest ; whereas, were they directed by scent, after a 

 sufficient number had passed to and fro to imbue the path 

 with the acid, there would be no occasion for further de- 

 portations. 3 



1 De Geer, ii. 1067. 2 Huber, 146. 



3 (Euv de Bonnet, i. 535. \ Huber, 197. 



"g 3 



