PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



87 



building, where he sat alone many hours, desirous of diverting 

 his mind from his hopeless condition, he fixed his observation 

 upon an ant that was carrying a grain of corn (probably a 

 pupa) larger than itself up a high wall. Numbering the 

 efforts that it made to accomplish this object, he found that 

 the grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground, but the seven- 

 tieth time it reached the top of the wall, ff This sight (said 

 Timour) gave me courage at the moment ; and I have never 

 forgotten the lesson it conveyed." 1 



Madame Merian, in her Surinam Insects, speaking of the 

 large-headed ant (Atta cephalotes), affirms that, if they wish 

 to emigrate, they will construct a living bridge in this 

 manner : — One individual first fixes itself to a piece of wood 

 by means of its jaws, and remains stationary ; with this a 

 second connects itself ; a third takes hold of the second, and 

 a fourth of the third, and so on, till a long connected line is 

 formed fastened at one extremity, which floats, exposed to the 

 wind, till the other end is blown over so as to fix itself to the 

 opposite side of the stream, when the rest of the colony pass 

 over upon it, as a bridge. 2 This is the process, as far as I can 

 collect it from her imperfect account. As she is not always 

 very correct in her statements, I regarded this as altogether 

 fabulous, till I met with the following history of a similar 

 proceeding in De Azara, which induces me to give more credit 

 to it. 



He tells us, that in low districts in South America that 

 are exposed to inundations, conical hills of earth may be 

 observed, about three feet high, and very near to each other, 

 which are inhabited by a little black ant. When an inun- 

 dation takes place, they are heaped together out of the nest 

 into a circular mass, about a foot in diameter and four fingers 

 in depth. Thus they remain floating upon the water while 

 the inundation continues. One of the sides of the mass 

 which they form is attached to some sprig of grass, or piece 

 of wood; and when the waters are retired, they return to 

 their habitation. When they wish to pass from one plant to 



1 Related in the Quarterly Review for August, 1816, p. 259. 



2 Insect. Surinam, p. 18. In her plate the ants are represented so con- 

 nected. 



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