ANT. 
445 
during the cold season in a state of stupor ; not, as 
has been supposed by many, enjoying the fruits of 
their former industry, but cold and lethargic, wait- 
ing the return of the vernal sun to unbend their 
limbs and renew their activity. After a few days 
of fine warm weather the whole body is again in 
motion, and the females soon begin to lay their eggs, 
which are carefully attended to and placed in the 
most secure part of the hill. It has been errone- 
ously supposed, that the small oval bodies which 
the ants carry with so much care from place 
to place, when they are disturbed, are the eggs. 
On the contrary, the eggs themselves are so very 
small as hardly to be visible ; even the maggot, 
when first hatched, is not much larger than a com- 
mon grain of sand. It increases, however, progres- 
sively in size, till the time appointed for its passage 
into the chrysalis state, when it spins itself a silken 
web and becomes the little oval body already no- 
ticed, and about which the parent shows so much 
solicitude. To be convinced of the great attach- 
ment of ants to their young, it is only necessary 
to disturb one of their hills with a stick, and the 
community will be immediately seen in the greatest 
confusion ; every one is busy, but none forgets its 
charge, and the first object of their care seems these 
oval bodies, which they seize with one accord ; and 
such is their assiduity, that although hundreds strew 
the ground in every direction about the hill, they 
will all be removed to a place of safety in a few 
minutes. In proportion as the season is moist or 
