ANT. 
struct bridges, and, in general, conduct the vari- 
ous operations of building, foraging, devastating, 
defending, and fighting. 
The ants of the warmer countries of the world, 
particularly those of Africa, South America, and 
the West Indies, construct large, intricate, and 
wonderful dwellings, which have astonished tra- 
vellers, and challenged the admiration of the 
most phlegmatic naturalists; but the ants of 
Britain, though very various in habits, construct 
abodes which are more remarkable for their an- 
noyance to man or their mischievousness to the 
soil than for either size or intricacy. The turf 
ant, Formica cespitum, a small dusty brown in- 
sect, frequent in commons and pasture-fields, 
usually selects a tuft of herbage, piles: up small 
gravins of earth into the partitions of cells and 
chambers, and makes the stems of the herbage 
| serve as props and the grassy leaves as covering. 
| The yellow ant, Formica flava, gnaws portions of 
| wood into saw-dust, mixes this with earth and 
_.spiders’ webs, and employs the mixture in con- 
_ structing the chambers, stages, and galleries of 
its mimic city. The fallow ant, Mormica rufa—the 
| largest of the British species, and not uncommon 
in woods and pleasure-grounds—constructs very 
numerous galleries and chambers in a series of 
| successive stories, from an excavated base to some 
height above the surface of the ground, and gives 
the whole such an exterior finish as to make it 
resemble a considerable mound or little hillock of 
sand and earth, with bits of wood, leaves, twigs, 
and grains of corn in apparently indiscriminate 
mixture. The red ant, Myrmica rubra, common 
in gardens, and not unfrequent in pasture-fields, 
makes burrows and chambers under stones or in 
the ground. The brown ant, Mormica fusca, in- 
geniously and industriously constructs habita- 
tions with a series of stories in clay. The jet 
ant, Hormica fuliginosa, excavates horizontal gal- 
leries in a series of stories in the trunks of old 
oaks or willows; and these galléries are all even- 
tually stained black, and sometimes have the 
appearance, though on a mimic scale, of elaborate 
carved work. 
The males and females of an ants’ nest usually 
emerge from their pupa state in August or Sep- 
tember ; and they may then be seen commencing 
a new course of existence, issuing from their nest, 
rising into the air, and settling on posts, gates, 
and stones, and sometimes forming little clouds, 
which whirl and twist through the air, and seem 
to comprise thousands or even myriads of beings. 
The males have neither stings for defence nor 
sufficiently strong jaws for labour and the collec- 
tion of food; and they speedily perform their 
peculiar function and perish. A vast proportion 
of the females, in common with all the males, are 
either devoured by birds or driven into rivers, 
lakes, and ponds; and some of the remaining por- 
tion of the females re-establish the old nests, 
some found numerous new: colonies, and all 
199 
eggs.—Ants are torpid during winter, and do not 
need, like bees, to lay up stores of provision. 
They are singularly fond of the sweet juice, pop- 
ularly called honey-dew, exuded by aphides; and 
colonies of them, particularly of the yellow ant, 
often appropriate particular trees or branches of 
trees for the sake of their honey-dew, or actually 
enclose groups of aphides and keep them as pe- 
culiar property, angrily and steadily resisting the 
encroachments of all other ants upon their pre- 
mises.—Some species of ants, particularly the 
fallow ant of Britain and the remarkably work- 
ing ants of tropical countries, frequently perform 
emigrations. Rival colonies of the fallow ant 
sometimes engage in battle, thousands on each 
side; and they occasionally fight with such en- 
grossing pugnacity and such pertinacious ob- 
stinacy as to be incognizant or careless of human 
observation, ‘ihe workers or neuters of the rufe- 
scent and sanguineous ants, Mormica rufescens 
and Mormica sanguinea, common on the conti- 
nent, though very rarely if ever found in Great 
Britain, compel the workers of the species for- 
mica fusca and formica cunicularia, to serve as 
their auxiliaries or slaves. Various other inter- 
esting facts might be pointed out in the indus- 
trial national history of European ants; and an 
absolute volume of interesting facts, many of 
them utterly astonishing, might be collected re- 
specting the industry, economy, achievements, 
and policy of the ants of the tropics. ‘The ants 
are a people not strong, yet they prepare their 
meat in the summer.” “Go to the ant, thou 
slugeard ; consider her ways, and be wise.” 
One of the most disastrous and wonderful de- 
predations by ants on record, occurred in 1780, 
in the island of Granada, and was effected by the 
sugar-eating ant, Mormica saccharivora. Literal 
torrents of the insect descended from the hills, filled 
the roads and the plantations for miles, destroyed 
whole estates of sugar-canes by eating the plants 
through the roots, killed rats, mice, reptiles, 
birds, and domestic quadrupeds, and, in some in- 
stances, dammed up rivulets, and formed with 
their accumulated carcasses mounds or bridges for 
surviving myriads to pass the streams with safety. 
Large fires were lighted in their path to arrest 
them, but were extinguished by their progress ; 
a reward of £20,000 was offered to any person 
who should discover an effectual mode of destroy- 
ing them; and had they not been providentially 
swept away in the torrents of a terrific hurricane, 
they probably would have converted the island 
into a wilderness. Though British ants have 
never even remotely imitated such awful devas- 
tation, yet they every year give considerable 
annoyance to a large proportion of both farmers 
and gardeners, and they everywhere require to 
be kept in check, or hindered from too prolific a 
propagation. The more common kinds, Mormica 
fusca and Formica rufa, frequently establish their 
colonies at the root of fruit-trees, ascend the | 
speedily lose their wings, and commence laying 
Ee 
stems at their convenience, and prey largelyupon || 
