named alone to which we shall confine our remarks in this article. Ants belong to that section of the Hymenoptera known as the Aculeata, because in some cases the insects possess a poisonous sting; the species are either social or solitary; the latter (Mutillide Leach) consist only of two sexes, male and female; the males are always winged, the females wingless. The social ants (Formicide and Myrmicide Leach) form communities, and consist of males, females, and workers or neuters; these last though certainly not least in importance are really immature females with aborted ovaries, and as a rule, to which, however, rare exceptions may occur, incapable of producing fertile eggs. It is of the social ants alone that we have to

speak.

There is such a flood of curious matter surrounding the natural history of ants made known to us by patient modern observers, that we have not space at command for recording what the ancient classical writers have handed down, so we pass over the story of Herodotus about some Indian ants as large as foxes, which throw up hills of sand mixed with gold, and take no notice of the fables of Aristotle, Plutarch, and Pliny. Leuwenhoek, the patient Dutch philosopher and microscopist, and Swammerdam, the insect anatomist, are amongst the first to give us any real information on ants. The former studied their metamorphosis, and showed that the large white oval bodies which had hitherto been regarded as eggs were the larvæ or cocoons, the true eggs being very small bodies. Swammerdam confirmed the observations of his distinguished predecessor, manifesting deep and laborious research as well as giving very lucid descriptions; he traces the changes from the footless larva to the developed nympha, correctly telling us that the males and females have wings, that the rest, often a numberless host, are the neuters or workers as amongst bees and wasps, and that some of the larvæ are naked, others enclosed in cocoons. We must not forget to mention the name of an Englishman, William Gould, who in 1747 published An Account of English Ants,' in which he gives accurate information on the architecture of ants, their manners and customs, &c.; he denies that ants store up grains of corn for winter-food, and correctly states that the ants of this country at least never eat corn nor, indeed, anything else in the winter time; he suggests, however, as has turned out to be the case, that perhaps foreign species do so. Mentioning only the names of Linneus, Geoffoy, Reaumur, Bonnet, de Geer, and Latreille, we come to the historian of ants, the sagacious, patient, and accurate M. Pierre Huber, the more illustrious son of an

illustrious father; for it is to him that we are largely indebted for our knowledge of the habits and economy of these little insects. Huber's researches into the natural history of the ants of Switzerland embrace the subjects of their architecture, their development, the conduct of the workers to the fertilised females, their wars, their slave-making habits, migrations, affection for their comrades, their strange relations with the aphides and gall-insects, their internal language, &c. Of 'so romantic a nature' did some of Huber's recorded facts appear to many, that he expresses himself happy that since the publication of his work he had frequently witnessed what he had described, and that he was not the only person who had noticed them, but that several good observers in Switzerland had themselves been eye-witnesses of the same facts, amongst whom he mentions especially and with pride the distinguished name of Latreille. I can truly declare,' says he, that I have neither been led aside by fertile imagination, nor by a 'love of the marvellous.' But we owe still further, though indirect, obligations to Pierre Huber, because his published researches have been the means of bringing before the entomological student one of the most valuable monographs ever published on this or any other subject of a similar nature; we allude to the great work of M. Auguste Forel, Les Fourmis 'de la Suisse-a work which has been justly crowned by the Swiss Society of Natural Science, and one which for some time will probably remain the chief authority on all that pertains to the history of ants. M. Forel in his preface distinctly states that his perusal of the admirable work of Pierre Huber in 1859 so intensely interested him, that he set himself at once to the study, and it is most pleasant to find that M. Forel's own researches confirm the general accuracy and truthfulness of Huber's work.

In England we are chiefly, as well as considerably, indebted to Mr. Frederick Smith, of the British Museum, for information On the Genera and Species of British Formicidæ,' and to Sir John Lubbock, who has for some time been studying the habits of ants, and who has published in the Journal of 'the Linnean Society' some very curious and interesting experiments; the same accomplished naturalist is still continuing his patient investigations, the result of which, it is probable, may incline us to be somewhat sceptical as to the inferences. drawn from certain recorded facts, more especially with regard to the far-seeing wisdom of ants, their powers of communication, and their affection for their companions.

The various species of social ants must be extremely

numerous; Mr. F. Smith, several years ago, said we have 690 recorded species.

"The metropolis of the group,' he adds, undoubtedly lies in the tropics; and when we reflect upon the observation of Mr. Bates, who has collected for some years in Brazil-" I think," says that observant naturalist, "the number in the valley of the Amazons alone cannot be "less than 400 species"-if this prove to be the case how limited must our present knowledge of the group be! The imagination is unable even to guess at the probable amount of species, when we remember that Mr. Bates is speaking of a single valley in Brazil; and were the vast expanse of South America, North America, Africa, Australia, and its adjacent islands, India, and other parts of Asia, searched by diligent naturalists, there can be little doubt that the Formicida would equal in number, if not exceed, that of any other tribe of insects.' (Catalogue of Formicidæ, p. 2.)

The ants of the British Isles are by no means numerous in species, twenty-eight only being enumerated in Mr. F. Smith's catalogue, while many of these are very rare; perhaps there are not more than some eight or nine species that may be considered as common.

M. Forel divides the social ants into three families. (1) The Formicida, (2) Ponerida, (3) Myrmicida. The Formicide have no sting; they possess a single scale or node at the base of the abdomen; there is no contraction after the first segment of the abdomen; the nymphæ are sometimes naked, sometimes enclosed in cocoons. In the Ponerida the females and workers have a sting; the males are destitute of one; the abdomen is contracted after the first segment, and the nymphæ are enclosed in cocoons. The Myrmicida have a sting as in the Poneride, there are two scales at the pedicle or abdominal base, and the nymphæ are always naked. The neuters or workers are in some species of two different sizes, and their functions are different; for while the smaller neuters occupy themselves with architectural constructions and the various duties of a household, the larger ones have military duties only to perform.

The nests and architectural abodes of ants are of various forms and sizes, according to locality, accidental surroundings, and the seasons of the year; some nests, or parts of nests, are only provisional, others last for years; some parts of a nest are of different structure from others; in some the population is large, in others small, and this occurs amongst the individuals of the same species; some nests are open on all sides, others are entirely covered in. They are never constructed after a geometrical plan like the hexagonal cells of the bee and wasp, which make nests of a certain definite pattern, varying accord

ing to the species of the building-insect. Ants, on the contrary, are able to vary the forms of their nests according to circumstances and their own peculiar advantages, showing quite a genius for new combinations. In some hot countries there are nomad ants which make no nests, and form living balls on trees; but in Europe all the species of the social ants construct nests or abodes, whither they retire in winter, and where they often collect together in clusters. The most simple form of a nest is a burrow, which at first is a mere hole, whether in the ground or in the bark of a tree; these burrows may have both an entrance and exit hole. The nests of some species, on the other hand, show elaborate structure. M. Forel, in his interesting chapter on the architecture of nests, makes the following five great divisions:-1, nests of pure earth; 2, nests bored in wood; 3, nests of card-board, wood, or other material; 4, nests of composite materials; 5, abnormal nests. Each of these admits of several varieties of structure according to the habits and wants of the different species. Thus there are earth-nests of built-up domes, nests formed by undermining, nests under stones; nests in wood may be scooped out of the wood itself or the inner surface of the bark, portions of the solid parts being left for pillars and partitions, reminding one of the human worker in our coal and salt mines. Paper or card-board nests are very rare, there being only one European species which constructs this kind of nest, the Lasius fuliginosus Latreille. Nests formed of composite materials may consist of underground minings surmounted by a dome, or they may be formed with no dome-like superstructure in old decayed tree roots and trunks. The wood-ant, hill, or horseant (Formica rufa) of this country is a familiar example of the former kind of nest-builder, while the extremely common Myrmica scabrinodis may be frequently found in nests of the latter description. The hill or wood-ant is the largest of our British species; the ant-hill or dome-like exterior is only a portion of the nest; the materials of which it is composed consist of earth mixed with almost any transportable substances within reach, such as bits of grass, stalks, small dry twigs, the needle-like leaves of the larch, bits of dry leaves, &c. M. Forel mentions the occurrence also of various bodies more or less spherical, as little stones and shells of small molluscs. Huber has detailed the formation of the nest of this species.

To form an idea how the straw or stubble roof is formed, let us take a view of the ant-hill in its origin, where it is simply a cavity in the earth. Some of its future inhabitants are seen wandering about in search of materials fit for the exterior work, with which, though rather

irregularly, they cover up the entrance; whilst others are employed in mixing the earth thrown up, in hollowing the interior with fragments of wood and leaves, which are every moment brought in by their fellow-assistants, and this gives a certain consistence to the edifice which increases in size daily. Our little architects leave here and there cavities where they intend constructing the galleries which are to lead to the exterior, and as they remove in the morning the barriers placed at the entrance of their nest the preceding evening, the passages are kept entire during the whole time of its construction; we soon observe it to become convex, but we should be greatly deceived did we consider it solid. This roof is destined to include many apartments or storeys. Having observed the motions of these little masons through a pane of glass which I adjusted against one of their habitations, I am enabled to speak with some degree of certainty of the manner in which they are constructed. It is by excavating or mining the under-portion of their edifice that they form their spacious halls, low, indeed, and of heavy construction, yet sufficiently convenient for the use to which they are appropriated-that of receiving at certain hours of the day the larvæ and pupa. These halls have a free communication by galleries, made in the same manner. If the materials of which the ant-hill is composed were only interlaced, they would fall into a confused heap every time the ants attempted to bring them into regular order. This, however, is obviated by their tempering the earth with rain-water, which afterwards hardening in the sun, so completely and effectually binds together the several substances as to permit the removal of certain fragments from the ant-hill without any injury to the rest; it moreover strongly opposes the introduction of the rain. I never found, even after long and violent rains, the interior of the nest wetted to more than a quarter of an inch from the surface, provided it had not been previously out of repair or deserted by its inhabitants. The ants are extremely well-sheltered in their chambers, the largest of which is placed nearly in the centre of the building; it is much loftier than the rest and traversed only by the beams that support the ceiling; it is in this spot that all the galleries terminate, and this forms, for the most part, their usual residence. As to the underground portion, it can only be seen when the ant-hill is placed against a declivity; all the interior may then be readily brought in view by simply raising up the straw roof. The subterranean residence consists of a range of apartments excavated in the earth, taking an horizontal direction.'

M. Forel has drawn particular attention to small bits of grass-stems or of wood, thirteen centimetres long and 14 milimetres in diameter, which the ants employ in forming their galleries; these are the beams which give support to the galleries and chamber; they are arranged cross-ways interlacing one another, and the interstices are filled up with rounded materials; these galleries admit of being constructed into walls in different parts of the nest, by the filling up of the interstices between the beams, thus separating the small chambers and forming distinct galleries.