The BOOK of 
Ants take care of the young ones, and with 
what love they feed them: they carry them 
with amazing fondnefs between their jaws 
from place to place, nor do they omit any 
thing neceflary for their fupport or nourifh- 
ment. 
When the earth wherein they lived grew 
dry, I obferved that they carried their young 
ones to a lower part and deeper under the fur- 
face; but when I poured a little water thereon, 
fo that the mould became moift, it was then 
wonderful to fee how they all, ftimulated with 
love, endeavoured as much as they could to 
take away their young and carry them to a dry 
place. Nay, I obferved that after I had pour- 
ed in a greater quantity of water, they with 
all their might carried them to the higheft 
part of all. If I only-moiftened the dry earth, 
then they likewife carried their young out of 
the damp part. ‘Thus I had opportunities to 
fee very diftin¢ly, that the young ones moved 
and fucked nourifhment out of the fine and 
{mall particles of the earth. | 
I often endeavoured to nourith thefe young 
Worms, without the affiftance of the working 
Ants, but Inever fucceeded. Nay, Icould not 
exclude even the Nymph of thofe Vermicles, 
130 
NATURE; of, 
which the Ants likewife carry daily from 
place to place, without the affiftance of the 
working Ants. I gave them fugar, raifins, 
apples, pears, and the fruit of other trees and 
lants. I never found that they built thofe 
artificial nefts mentioned by fome authors, and 
therefore I apprehend that is to be underftood 
of fome other fpecies. Even in thofe places 
which they {pontaneoufly inhabited, Inever dif 
covered any work of art performed by the Ants 
of this {pecies; only broad paflages and crook- 
ed ways, defigned for carrying their young 
from one place to another. I have obferved 
likewife that they follow the fun’s motion, and 
convey their young according to the courfe 
that luminary purfues: this I have obferved in 
the fields where they inhabit little hillocks of 
earth ; for they there carried their young con- 
ftantly to thofe parts where the ground was 
warmed with the fun’s rays. I never obferved 
that Ants provide themfelves any food for the 
winter, although this has been fo ftrongly 
afferted: and therefore I think they eat no- 
thing whilft the winter is fevere ; as is com- 
mon with many infects, and in particular with 
fome f{pecies of Bees, which in the midift of 
winter abftain from all kinds of food *. 
Of certain other kinds of Ants, June of which fpin like the Silk-worms. 
ESIDES the fpecies of Ants hitherto 
B defcribed, I have feen five other kinds, 
fome of which I preferve in my collection. 
The firft {pecies is very large, and.was brought 
from the Cape of Good Hope. I have deli- 
neated it in Tab. XVI, fig. xvi. of its natural 
fize. Its head, eyes, horns, teeth, breatft, 
legs and belly are feen there as they naturally 
are. It isof a bright red colour: but, whether 
this was the working Ant or the female of 
that {pecies, I could not difcern : as it had no 
wings I am certain it wasnotamale. Iam 
likewife ignorant of the difpofition and nature 
of this {pecies of Ants. 
The other fpecies of. Ants, which I have 
feen in Holland, is flefh coloured, and of fuch 
fize and form as is exprefled in fig. x1v; but 
I cannot now determine whether this was a 
working Ant or a female. I met with this 
{pecies at Honteflard; where I examined in a 
wooden bole its eggs, Vermicles, Nymphs, 
working Ants, females and males, in great 
numbers mixed together in fome mould, where 
they were fet in order to ferve fome birds for 
food. ‘The males exceeded fomewhat in big- 
nefs the Ant I expreffed inthe figure, and had 
four membranaceous wings. But what de- 
* Our author is not fingle in his o 
imagines that they {pend that feafon, 
reafonable, as Ants are obferved to move more flowly as the cold weather advances. 
ferved particular notice in this {pecies was, 
that the Nymphs were all enclofed in a fheath 
or cafe, which, when the working Ants care- 
fully preferved, carried here and there between 
their jaws, made a very agreeable figure ; for 
thofe Ants carried on this occafion a bag bigger 
than themfelves. I experienced then for the - 
firtt time that the Vermicles of Ants, as well 
as the Silk-worms, form a bag or follicle, and 
that thofe that are enclofed in it are changed 
into Nymphs. ‘This web was of an oblong 
oval figure, and wrought with delicate and fine 
threads about the body, being of a rufty iron- 
colour, and when I opened it, I founda Nymph 
in the infide. I likewife carried fome of thefe 
enclofed Nymphs with me to Amfterdam, 
which after fome days gnawed their way out 
of their webs, and produced fome male Ants: 
this happened on the eighteenth of July. I gave 
the figure of fuch a fheath or cafe entire, and 
in its natural fize in figure x11. and a fection 
thereof in fig. x11I. 
The third fpecies of Ants that I obferved, 
was fomewhat lefs than the common Holland 
Ant: this does not fpin. I have given the 
hiftory thereof at large. Its body was much 
blacker and brighter than any of the other, 
pinion that Ants do not eat in winter; Leewenhoeck appears to be of the fame mind, and 
like Dormice and many other forts of animals, in a ftate of fleep; and this feems to be 
Mr. Gould alfo agrees with Swammerdam | 
that the Ants do not make any provifion for winter. But though our author here did not obferve any fuch provifion to be made 
by thofe he examined, yet proba 
and further, this opinion of their providi 
However, if it be true that they remain in a ftate of rett d 
whom their affection is wonderfully remarkable. 
bly fome other fpecies may, and other naturalifts tells us very wonderful things on this fubject ; 
ng for winter feems to be countenanced by the royal and infpired naturalift, Prov. vi. 6, 7, 8. 
uring the winter, the provifion they make may be for their young, for 
{pecies. 
