white-ants, and however earnestly they may induce you to wish you
could be a spectator of them, yet they scarcely exceed those of an
industrious tribe of insects, which are constantly passing under our
eye. The _ant_ has attracted universal notice, and been celebrated
from the earliest ages, both by sacred and profane writers, as a
pattern of prudence, foresight, wisdom, and diligence. Upon Solomon's
testimony in their favour I have enlarged before; and for those of
other ancient writers, I must refer you to the learned Bochart, who
has collected them in his _Hierozoicon_.
In reading what the ancients say on this subject, we must be careful,
however, to separate truth from error, or we shall attribute much
more to ants than of right belongs to them. Who does not smile when
he reads of ants that emulate the wolf in size, the dog in shape, the
lion in its feet, and the leopard in its skin; ants, whose employment
is to mine for gold, and from whose vengeance the furtive Indian is
constrained to fly on the swift camel's back[50]? But when we find
the writers of all nations and ages unite in affirming, that, having
deprived it of the power of vegetating, ants store up grain in their
nests, we feel disposed to give larger credit to an assertion, which,
at first sight, seems to savour more of fact than of fable, and does
not attribute more sagacity and foresight to these insects than
in other instances they are found to possess. Writers in general,
therefore, who have considered this subject, and some even of very
late date, have taken it for granted that the ancients were correct
in this notion. But when observers of nature began to examine the
manners and economy of these creatures more narrowly, it was found,
at least with respect to the European species of ants, that no such
hoards of grain were made by them, and, in fact, that they had no
magazines in their nests in which provisions of any kind were stored
up. It was therefore surmised that the ancients, observing them
carry about their _pupæ_, which in shape, size, and colour, not a
little resemble a grain of corn, and the ends of which they sometimes
pull open to let out the inclosed insect, mistook the one for the
other, and this action for depriving the grain of the corculum. Mr.
Gould, our countryman, was one of the first historians of the ant,
who discovered that they did not store up corn; and since his time
naturalists have generally subscribed to that opinion.
Till the manners of exotic ants are more accurately explored, it
would, however, be rash to affirm that no ants have magazines of
provisions; for although, during the cold of our winters in this
country, they remain in a state of torpidity, and have no need of
food, yet in warmer regions, during the rainy seasons, when they
are probably confined to their nests, a store of provisions may be
necessary for them. Even in northern climates, against wet seasons,
they may provide in this way for their sustenance and that of the
young brood, which, as Mr. Smeathman observes, are very voracious,
and cannot bear to be long deprived of their food; else why do ants
carry worms, living insects, and many other such things into their
nests? Solomon's lesson to the sluggard has been generally adduced
as a strong confirmation of the ancient opinion: it can, however,
only relate to the species of a warm climate, the habits of which,
as I have just observed, are probably different from those of a cold
one;--so that his words, as commonly interpreted, may be perfectly
correct and consistent with nature, and yet be not at all applicable
to the species that are indigenous to Europe. But I think, if
Solomon's words are properly considered, it will be found that this
interpretation has been fathered upon them, rather than fairly
deduced from them. He does not affirm that the ant which he proposes
to his sluggard as an example, laid up in her magazines stores of
grain: "Go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise;
which, having neither captain, overseer, nor ruler, prepares her
bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest." These
words may very well be interpreted simply to mean, that the ant, with
commendable prudence and foresight, makes use of the proper seasons
to collect a supply of provision sufficient for her purposes. There
is not a word in them implying that she stores up grain or other
provision. She prepares her bread, and gathers her food,--namely,
such food as is suited to her,--in summer and harvest,--that is,
when it is most plentiful,--and thus shows her wisdom and prudence
by using the advantages offered to her. The words thus interpreted,
which they may be without any violence, will apply to our European
species as well as to those that are not indigenous.
I shall now bid farewell to the ancients, and proceed to lay before
you what the observations of modern authors have enabled me to add
to the history of ants:--the principal of these are Leeuwenhoek,
Swammerdam (who was the first that had recourse to artificial means
for observing their proceedings), Linné, Bonnet, and especially the
illustrious Swedish entomologist De Geer. Gould also, who, though
no systematical naturalist, was a man of sense and observation, has
thrown great light upon the history of ants, and anticipated several
of what are accounted the discoveries of more modern writers on
this subject[51]. Latreille's _Natural History of Ants_ is likewise
extremely valuable, not only as giving a systematic arrangement and
descriptions of the species, but as concentrating the accounts of
preceding authors, and adding several interesting facts _ex proprio
penu_. The great historiographer of ants, however, is M. P. Huber;
who has lately published a most admirable and interesting work upon
them, in which he has far outstripped all his predecessors.--Such are
the sources from which the following account of ants is principally
drawn, intermixed with which you will find some occasional
observations,--which your partiality to your friend may, perhaps,
induce you to think not wholly devoid of interest,--that it has been
my fortune to make.
The societies of ants, as also of other _Hymenoptera_, differ
from those of the Termites in having inactive larvæ and pupæ, the
neuters or workers combining in themselves both the military and
civil functions. Besides the helpless larvæ and pupæ, which have
no locomotive powers, these societies consist of females, males,
and workers. The office of the _females_, at their first exclusion
distinguished by a pair of ample wings, (which however, as you have
heard, they soon cast,) is the foundation of new colonies, and
the furnishing of a constant supply of eggs for the maintenance
of the population in the old nests as well as in the new. These
are usually the least numerous part of the community[52]. The
office of the _males_, which are also winged, and at the time of
swarming are extremely numerous, is merely the impregnation of the
females: after the season for this is passed, they die. Upon the
_workers_[53] devolves, except in nascent colonies, all the work,
as well as the defence of the community, of which they are the most
numerous portion. In some societies of ants the workers are of two
dimensions.--In the nests of _F. rufa_ and _flava_ such were observed
by Gould, the size of one exceeding that of the other about one
third[54]. (In my specimens, the large workers of _F. rufa_ are
nearly three times, and of _F. flava_ twice, the size of the small
ones.) All were equally engaged in the labours of the colony. Large
workers were also noticed by M. P. Huber in the nests of _Polyergus
rufescens_[55], but he could not ascertain their office.
Having introduced you to the individuals of which the associations
of ants consist, I shall now advert to the principal events of their
history, relating first the fates of the _males_ and _females_. In
the warm days that occur from the end of July to the beginning of
September, and sometimes later, the habitations of the various species
of ants may be seen to swarm with winged insects, which are the males
and females, preparing to quit for ever the scene of their nativity and
education. Every thing is in motion--and the silver wings contrasted
with the jet bodies which compose the animated mass, add a degree of
splendour to the interesting scene. The bustle increases, till at
length the males rise, as it were by a general impulse, into the air,
and the females accompany them. The whole swarm alternately rises and
falls with a slow movement to the height of about ten feet, the males
flying obliquely with a rapid zigzag motion, and the females, though
they follow the general movement of the column, appearing suspended in
the air, like balloons, seemingly with no individual motion, and having
their heads turned towards the wind.
Sometimes the swarms of a whole district unite their infinite myriads,
and, seen at a distance, produce an effect resembling the flashing
of an aurora borealis. Rising with incredible velocity in distinct
columns, they soar above the clouds. Each column looks like a kind
of slender net-work, and has a tremulous undulating motion, which
has been observed to be produced by the regular alternate rising and
falling just alluded to. The noise emitted by myriads and myriads of
these creatures does not exceed the hum of a single wasp. The slightest
zephyr disperses them; and if in their progress they chance to be over
your head, if you walk slowly on, they will accompany you, and regulate
their motions by yours. The females continue sailing majestically
in the centre of these numberless males, who are all candidates for
their favour, each till some fortunate lover darts upon her, and,
as the Roman youth did the Sabine virgins, drags his bride from the
sportive crowd, and the nuptials are consummated in mid-air; though
sometimes the union takes place on the summit of plants, but rarely in
the nests[56]. After this _danse de l'amour_ is celebrated, the males
disappear, probably dying, or becoming, with many of the females, the
prey of birds or fish[57]; for, since they do not return to the nest,
they cannot be destroyed, as some have supposed, like the drone bees,
by the neuters. That many, both males and females, become the prey of
fish, I am enabled to assert from my own observation.--In the beginning
of August 1812, I was going up the Orford river in Suffolk, in a
row-boat, in the evening, when my attention was caught by an infinite
number of winged ants, both males and females, at which the fish were
every where darting, floating alive upon the surface of the water.
While passing the river, these had probably been precipitated into it,
either by the wind, or by a heavy shower which had just fallen. And M.
Huber after the same event observed the earth strewed with females that
had lost their wings, all of which could not form colonies[58].
Captain Haverfield, R. N. gave me an account of an extraordinary
appearance of ants observed by him in the Medway, in the autumn
of 1814, when he was first-lieutenant of the Clorinde--which is
confirmed by the following letter addressed by the surgeon of that
ship, now Dr. Bromley, to Mr. MacLeay:
"In September 1814, being on the deck of the hulk to the Clorinde, my
attention was drawn to the water by the first-lieutenant (Haverfield)
observing there was something black floating down with the tide.
On looking with a glass, I discovered they were insects.--The boat
was sent, and brought a bucket full of them on board;--they proved
to be a large species of ant, and extended from the upper part of
Salt-pan reach out towards the Great Nore, a distance of five or six
miles. The column appeared to be in breadth eight or ten feet, and in
height about six inches, which I suppose must have been from their
resting one upon another." Purchas seems to have witnessed a similar
phenomenon on shore. "Other sorts (of ants)," says he, "there are
many, of which some become winged and fill the air with swarms, which
sometimes happens in England. On Bartholomew 1613 I was in the island
of Foulness on our Essex shore, where were such clouds of these
flying pismires, that we could no where fly from them, but they
filled our clothes; yea the floors of some houses where they fell
were in a manner covered with a black carpet of creeping ants; which
they say drown themselves about that time of the year in the sea[59]."
These ants were winged:--whence, in the first instance here related,
this immense column came was not ascertained. From the numbers here
agglomerated, one would think that all the ant-hills of the counties
of Kent and Surrey could scarcely have furnished a sufficient number
of males and females to form it.
When Colonel Sir Augustus Frazer, of the Horse Artillery, was
surveying on the 6th of October 1813 the scene of the battle of the
Pyrenees from the summit of the mountain called Pena de Aya, or Les
Quatre Couronnes, he and his friends were enveloped by a swarm of
ants, so numerous as entirely to intercept their view, so that they
were glad to remove to another station, in order to get rid of them.
The females that escape from the injury of the elements and their
various enemies, become the founders of new colonies, doing all the
work, as I have related in a former letter, that is usually done by
the neuters[60]. M. P. Huber has found incipient colonies, in which
were only a few workers engaged with their mother in the care of a
small number of larvæ; and M. Perrot, his friend, once discovered a
small nest, occupied by a solitary female, who was attending upon
four pupæ only. Such is the foundation and first establishment of
those populous nations of ants with which we every where meet.
But though the majority of females produced in a nest probably thus
desert it, all are not allowed this liberty. The prudent workers are
taught by their instinct that the existence of their community depends
upon the presence of a sufficient number of females. Some therefore
that are fecundated in or near the spot they forcibly detain, pulling
off their wings, and keeping them prisoners till they are ready to
lay their eggs, or are reconciled to their fate. De Geer in a nest
of _F. rufa_ observed that the workers compelled some females that
were come out of the nest, to re-enter it[61]; and from M. P. Huber
we learn that, being seized at the moment of fecundation, they are
conducted into the interior of the formicary, when they become entirely
dependent upon the neuters, who hanging pertinaciously to each leg
prevent their going out, but at the same time attend upon them with
the greatest care, feeding them regularly, and conducting them where
the temperature is suitable to them, but never quitting them a single
moment. By degrees these females become reconciled to their fate, and
lose all desire of making their escape;--their abdomen enlarges, and
they are no longer detained as prisoners, yet each is still attended
by a body-guard--a single ant, which always accompanies her, and
prevents her wants.--Its station is remarkable, it being mounted upon
her abdomen, with its posterior legs upon the ground. These sentinels
are constantly relieved: and to watch the moment when the female begins
the important work of oviposition, and carry off the eggs, of which she
lays four or five thousand or more in the course of the year, seems to
be their principal office.
When the female is acknowledged as a mother, the workers begin to pay
her a homage very similar to that which the bees render to their queen.
All press round her, offer her food, conduct her by her mandibles
through the difficult or steep passages of the formicary; nay, they
sometimes even carry her about their city;--she is then suspended upon
their jaws, the ends of which are crossed; and, being coiled up like
the tongue of a butterfly, she is packed so close as to incommode the
carrier but little. When she sets her down, others surround and caress
her, one after another tapping her on the head with their antennæ. "In
whatever apartment," says Gould, "a queen condescends to be present,
she commands obedience and respect. An universal gladness spreads
itself through the whole cell, which is expressed by particular acts of
joy and exultation. They have a particular way of skipping, leaping,
and standing upon their hind-legs, and prancing with the others. These
frolics they make use of, both to congratulate each other when they
meet, and to show their regard for the queen; some of them gently walk
over her, others dance round her; she is generally encircled with a
cluster of attendants, who, if you separate them from her, soon collect
themselves into a body, and inclose her in the midst[62]." Nay, even
if she dies, as if they were unwilling to believe it, they continue
sometimes for months the same attentions to her, and treat her with the
same courtly formality as if she were alive, and they will brush her
and lick her incessantly[63].
This homage paid by the workers to their queens, according to Gould,
is temporary and local;--when she has laid eggs in any cell, their
attentions, he observed, seemed to relax, and she became unsettled
and uneasy. In the summer months she is to be met with in various
apartments in the colony; and eggs also are to be seen in several
places, which induced him to believe that, having deposited a parcel
in one, she retires to another for the same purpose, thus frequently
changing her situation and attendants. As there are always a number
of lodgements void of eggs but full of ants, she is never at a loss
for an agreeable station and submissive retinue: and by the time she
has gone her rounds in this manner, the eggs first laid are brought
to perfection, and her old attendants are glad to receive her again.
Yet this inattention after oviposition is not invariable; the female
and neuters sometimes unite together in the same cell after the eggs
are laid. On this occasion the workers divide their attention; and
if you disturb them, some will run to the defence of their queen, as
well as of the eggs, which last, however, are the great objects of
their solicitude. This statement differs somewhat from M. Huber's; but
different species vary in their instincts, which will account for this
and similar dissonances in authors who have observed their proceedings.
Mr. Gould also noticed but very few females in ant-nests, sometimes
only one; but M. Huber, who had better opportunities, found several,
which he says live very peaceably together, showing none of that spirit
of rivalry so remarkable in the queen bee.
And here I must close my narrative of the life and adventures of male
and female ants; but, as it will be followed by a history of the
still more interesting proceedings of the _workers_, I think you will
not regret the exchange. I shall show these to you in many different
views, under each of which you will find fresh reason to admire
them and their wonderful instincts. My only fear will be lest you
should think the picture too highly coloured, and deem it incredible
that creatures so minute should so far exceed the larger animals in
wisdom, foresight, and sagacity, and make so near an approach in
these respects to man himself.--My facts, however, are derived from
authorities so respectable, that I think they will do away any bias
of this kind that you may feel in your mind[64].
I need not here repeat what I have said in a former letter concerning
the exemplary attention paid by these kind foster-mothers to
the young brood of their colonies; nor shall I enlarge upon the
building and nature of their habitations, which have been already
noticed[65]:--but, without either of these, I have matter enough
to fill the rest of this letter with interesting traits, while I
endeavour to teach you their language, to develop their affections
and passions, and to delineate their virtues;--while I show them
to you when engaged in war, and enable you to accompany them both
in their military expeditions and in their emigrations,--while I
make you a witness of their indefatigable industry and incessant
labours,--or invite you to be present, during their hours of
relaxation, at their sports and amusements.
That ants, though they are mute animals, have the means of
communicating to each other information of various occurrences, and
use a kind of language which is mutually understood, will appear
evident from the following facts.
If those at the surface of a nest are alarmed, it is wonderful in
how short a time the alarm spreads through the whole nest. It runs
from quarter to quarter; the greatest inquietude seems to possess
the community; and they carry with all possible dispatch their
treasures, the larvæ and pupæ, down to the lowest apartments. Amongst
those species of ants that do not go much from home, sentinels seem
to be stationed at the avenues of their city. Disturbing once the
little heaps of earth thrown up at the entrances into the nest of
_F. flava_, which is of this description, I was struck by observing
a single ant immediately come out, as if to see what was the matter,
and this three separate times.
The _F. herculanea_ inhabits the trunks of hollow trees on the
continent, for it has not yet been found in England, upon which
they are often passing to and fro. M. Huber observed, that when he
disturbed those that were at the greatest distance from the rest,
they ran towards them, and, striking their head against them,
communicated their cause of fear or anger,--that these, in their
turn, conveyed in the same way the intelligence to others, till the
whole colony was in a ferment, those neuters which were within the
tree running out in crowds to join their companions in the defence of
their habitation. The same signals that excited the courage of the
neuters produced fear in the males and females, which, as soon as the
news of the danger was thus communicated to them, retreated into the
tree as to an asylum.
The legs of one of this gentleman's artificial formicaries were plunged
into pans of water, to prevent the escape of the ants;--this proved a
source of great enjoyment to these little beings, for they are a very
thirsty race, and lap water like dogs[66]. One day, when he observed
many of them tippling very merrily, he was so cruel as to disturb them,
which sent most of the ants in a fright to the nest; but some more
thirsty than the rest continued their potations. Upon this, one of
those that had retreated returns to inform his thoughtless companions
of their danger; one he pushes with his jaws; another he strikes first
upon the belly, and then upon the breast; and so obliges three of them
to leave off their carousing, and march homewards; but the fourth, more
resolute to drink it out, is not to be discomfited, and pays not the
least regard to the kind blows with which his compeer, solicitous for
his safety, repeatedly belabours him:--at length, determined to have
his way, he seizes him by one of his hind-legs, and gives him a violent
pull:--upon this, leaving his liquor, the loiterer turns round, and
opening his threatening jaws with every appearance of anger, goes very
coolly to drinking again; but his monitor, without further ceremony,
rushing before him, seizes him by his jaws, and at last drags him off
in triumph to the formicary[67].
The language of ants, however, is not confined merely to giving
intelligence of the approach or presence of danger; it is also
co-extensive with all their other occasions for communicating their
ideas to each other.
Some, whose extraordinary history I shall soon relate to you, engage
in military expeditions, and often previously send out spies to
collect information. These, as soon as they return from exploring the
vicinity, enter the nest; upon which, as if they had communicated
their intelligence, the army immediately assembles in the suburbs
of their city, and begins its march towards that quarter whence the
spies had arrived. Upon the march, communications are perpetually
making between the van and the rear; and when arrived at the camp
of the enemy, and the battle begins, if necessary, couriers are
dispatched to the formicary for reinforcements[68].