

388 THE INSECT WORLD. 
with any great danger, take on their shoulders the eggs, the 
larvee, the pups, and sometimes those females and the males 
which refuse to follow them. Thus laden, they go their way, 
Anchises like, to seek for another country they may call their 
own. They never forget, in their hurried emigrations, the 
infirm or sick workers, which would perish in the house now 
abandoned and deserted. 
The males and females lately hatched do not enjoy the same 
liberty as the young workers. They are confined to the ant-hill, 
where they are kept in sight till the day of the general 
departure. It is towards the end of the month of August that 
swarms of winged ants of both sexes are seen to issue forth. 
The males come out first, agitating their iridescent and trans- 
parent wings. The females, less numerous, follow them closely. 
All of a sudden, one sees this troop raise itself at a given signal, 
and disappear in the air, where the coupling takes place. The 
males perish immediately afterwards. 'The females impregnated 
return to the paternal home, or else found new colonies, with 
the assistance of a few “workers who are their escort. From 
this moment, they no longer require wings. The workers make 
haste to cut them off, or, indeed, which oftenest happens, they 
themselves tear them off. With their wings they lose the desire 
for liberty. Henceforward, they will quit their retreat no more ; 
the cares of their approaching maternity now alone occupy:ng them. 
The working ants reserve for them subterranean chambers, where 
they are kept in sight by the sentinels. At certain hours only 
are they to be met with in the upper stories. When they wish 
to walk, a company of guards presses round them on all sides, 
so as to prevent them from advancing too quickly. There are no 
sorts of attentions they do not heap upon them to make them 
forget their captivity. They caress them, brush them, lick them, 
they offer them food continually. On the least appearance of 
danger, the workers take possession, first of all, of the pregnant 
females, and drag them out by the secret outlets, so as to put 
in a place of safety their precious persons, the hope of the com- 
munity. The workers’ task is immense, for their labours increase 
in the same proportion as the population increases. But the 
division of work and the good understanding which exists between 

