A gnat separated from the rest of its kind, and inclosed in a glass vessel, with air sufficient to keep it alive, shall produce young, which also, when separated from each other, shall be the parents of a numerous progeny. Thus, down to five or six generations, do these extraordinary animals propagate in the manner of vegetables *" It must have been some dreamy recollection of what he had read in Réaumur or Bonnet, whose works he elsewhere quotes, that led Goldsmith into so palpable an error.

́a, Aphis of the elm; 6, aphis of the willow, greatly magnified; c, common gnat, (Culex pipiens), natural size.

THE multitudinous population which attracts the attention of the common observer in an ant-hill is not composed, in the usual meaning of the terms, either of males or females, they being all incapable of propagation. Their chief employment is, however, the female duty of nursing the rising generation of * Animated Nature, iv. 310.

Y

the colony, providing them with food, constructing chambers for their reception*, and taking care to shelter them from cold and wet. On minutely examining their conformation, accordingly, these nurseants or workers, as they are usually termed, have been discovered to be, like the workers in a bee-hive, females imperfectly developed, and, therefore, incapable of laying eggs. This office is appropriated to a distinct class of the colony, which would not at first be recognized by the common observer as belonging to ants at all, inasmuch as they are not only thrice the bulk of the nurse-ants, but provided with four very ample wings, and are besides, in some species, very different in colour. The female, for example, of the yellow ant (Formica flava) is of a blackish-bronze colour, and might, if deprived of her wings, be taken for a worker of the jet-ant (F. fuliginosa), become grizzled with age. Although much remains still to be investigated with regard to these singular insects, and particularly as to their pairing, enough has been discovered by Gould, De Geer, and the younger Huber, to awaken interest and excite wonder.

Towards midsummer, on to the close of autumn, if a populous ant-hill of any species be examined, there will be seen mixed with the wingless workers a number of larger insects, with whitish, glistening wings, but not taking any part in the labours of the colony. Amongst these winged insects, also, further examination will show that some are much larger than others, though agreeing nearly with them in colour. These larger ones are the females; those of less size, the males. A very little attention will show, however, that these are neither kings nor queens in the State, at least so far as freedom of action is concerned, for they are not * See Insect Architecture, chap. xiv.

allowed to move without a guard of workers to prevent their leaving the boundaries, and if one straggles away unawares, it is for the most part dragged back by the vigilant sentinels, three or four of whom may, in such cases, be seen hauling along a single deserter by the wings and limbs. We have never seen the delinquent offer the slightest resistance, nor make any endeavour to escape, but always, on the contrary, exhibiting as much eagerness as the guard to regain the nearest gateway of the city. When a colony, indeed, is exposed by removing the stone or other covering which shelters them, the winged inhabitants are always eager to conceal themselves in the lower chambers, and in a few minutes none of them are to be seen; but even in such a case the extreme jealousy of the workers is not contented with any display of agility, and they always subject them more or less to the dragging system. We may mention that this is not one of those rare phenomena which accident only brings under the eye of the naturalist, as it may be always witnessed whenever males and females are present in an anthill; and out of some hundreds which we have visited within a few days (Formica flava, F.fusca, &c.), we saw what we have described in more than two-thirds of the number*. We state this more particularly, as it does not appear to be altogether in accordance with the observations of Gould and the younger Huber.

"Let us retire," says the latter, "to a meadow on a fine summer's day, at a time when they first make use of their wings, and take a survey of their habitation, on the surface of which we shall observe, walking to and fro, many of its winged inhabitants. These are the males and females of the field-ant: they climb all the plants which surround their resi

* J. R.

dence, and are every where accompanied by a multitude of workers, who follow their steps with ceaseless solicitude. Some, however, attempt to retain and reconduct them to the ant-hill; but the greater part content themselves with simply escorting them. They offer them nourishment for the last time, and render them the last token of their care and affection."

Again he says, “disorder and agitation are now manifest in the ant-hill; the bustle increases every moment. The winged insects climb with alacrity the adjacent plants, followed by a numerous train of workers, who are continually running from one male to another, touching them with their antennæ, and offering them food. The males, at length, quit the paternal roof, and take flight as from one general impulse, in which they are quickly followed by the females. The winged tribe soon disappear. The workers retrace, for some instants, the steps of these highly favoured beings, to whom they have shown such extreme care and attention, and whom they are never destined to see more."- "When the weather is favourable (not below 67° Fahr.), the labourers, who seem to be aware of it, form several apertures in the ant-hill, to give ready passage to the crowd that are about to quit it. The males and females may be then seen coming to take air at the entrance. The hour of departure arrives: they all take flight. The workers alone re-enter the nest and close the entrances

*

According to our observations, on the other hand, the workers, so far from ever facilitating the exit, much less the departure of the winged ones, more particularly the females, guard them most assiduously in order to prevent it; and are only forced to acquiesce in it when the winged ones become too * Huber on Ants, p. 99.

numerous either to be guarded or fed. There seems, indeed, to be a uniform disposition in the winged ones to desert their native colony; and as they never return after pairing, it would soon become depopulated in the absence of females. In such a case, indeed, the workers would give up their industry, and would soon wander away and perish. But when they succeed in retaining a few females amongst them, they renew their labours with fresh ardour.

One circumstance is of importance to be considered. The actual pairing does not seem to take place within the ant-hill, and we have observed scouts posted all around, ready to discover and carry back to the colony as many fertile females as they could meet with. Nay, we are quite certain that whole colonies have been thus dispersed, and when they' did not find fertile females near their encampment, they have gone farther and farther till they found them, and when it was deemed too far, never returned, but commenced a number of new establishments, according to their convenience. This, as it appears to us, accounts, in the only rational way, for the existence of so many colonies of the same species, frequently found near each other in particular localities. We have witnessed two instances in which populous colonies were in this manner completely broken up, and their original city abandoned by the workers, who had dispersed in pursuit of the fertile females which had escaped. One was the ash-coloured ant (Formica fusca), the other the red ant (Myrmica rubra); and an instance of the latter has just occurred to us in which a numerous establishment was, in the same way, reduced, within a few days, to two or three dozen; and these would probably have been dispersed in the same way, had they not been successful in capturing and retaining