PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



89 



amused themselves with carrying each other on their backs, 

 the rider holding with his mandibles the neck of his horse, and 

 embracing it closely with his legs. 1 But the most circum- 

 stantial account of their sports is given by Huber. " I ap- 

 proached one day," says he, " one of their formicaries (he is 

 speaking of F. rufd) exposed to the sun and sheltered from the 

 north. The ants were heaped together in great numbers, and 

 seemed to enjoy the temperature which they experienced at 

 the surface of the nest. None of them were working : this 

 multitude of accumulated insects exhibited the appearance of 

 a boiling fluid, upon which at first the eye could scarce fix 

 itself without difficulty. But when I set myself to follow 

 each ant separately, I saw them approach each other, moving 

 their antennas with astonishing rapidity ; with their fore-feet 

 they patted lightly the cheeks of other ants : after these first 

 gestures, which resembled caresses, they reared upon their 

 hind-legs by pairs ; they wrestled together ; they seized one 

 another by a mandible, by a leg or an antenna; they then let go 

 their hold to renew the attack ; they fixed themselves to each 

 other's trunk or abdomen ; they embraced ; they turned each 

 other over, or lifted each other up by turns — they soon 

 quitted the ants they had seized, and endeavoured to catch 

 others. I have seen some who engaged in these exercises with 

 such eagerness, as to pursue successively several workers ; and 

 the combat did not terminate till the least animated, having 

 thrown his antagonist, accomplished his escape by concealing 

 himself in some gallery." 2 He compares these sports to the 

 gambols of two puppies, and tells us that he not only often 

 observed them in this nest, but also in his artificial one. 



I shall here copy for you a memorandum I formerly made. 

 " On the 9th of May, at half past two, as I was walking on 

 the Plumstead road near Norwich, on a sunny bank I observed 

 a large number of ants (Formica fusca) agglomerated in crowds 

 near the entrances of their nest. They seemed to make no 

 long excursions, as if intent upon enjoying the sunshine at 

 home ; but all the while they were coursing about, and ap- 

 peared to accost each other with their antennae. Examining 



1 Bonnet, ii. 407. 



2 Huber, 170—. 



