Search Results - The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

to establish themselves in the ant-hill; but it seems more probable that the ants have transported them thither, at least in a great part. There are four or five species which thus possess aphides, but in a fewer number, and less constantly than the yellow ants. Those species now alluded to being more active and wandering, can climb upon the trees which are loaded with aphides, and milk them in the manner we have described, without displacing them. There are even some that construct with earth

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

these combats, some females of the mining ants in flight, and carrying the nymphs in their mouths; but they do not meddle with the defence of the nest. These affairs did not last for any length of time. In less than a quarter of an hour, the amazons resumed the road to their domicile, and, in spite of the courage and obstinacy of both parties, but a small number of ants were destroyed. M. Huber is erroneous in supposing that the amazon ants have a sting. M. Latreille discovered, on examination

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

interior of this ant-hill is peopled only by the neuter and wingless individuals of the amazon and ash-coloured ants, or of the mining ants, though occasionally females are found there. A greater or less considerable quantity of insects of the same family, but not yet entirely developed, or even very young, compose the rest of the population. If the neuter amazons be compared with those of the ash-coloured or mining ants, there can be no hesitation in pronouncing the former to be a particular

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

declivity. If the hillock of stubble be removed, the interior division of the building may be seen: lodges worked horizontally in the earth, compose these subterraneous dwellings. M. Huber then describes the architecture of those ants which he terms masons, because their nests, always in the form of hillocks, like those of the red ants, are composed merely of earth, without a mixture of other materials, and their interior, divided in the manner of a labyrinth, presents lodges, vaults, and galleries

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

But this art appertains exclusively to the wood-ants (F. rufa). The species called Hercules, Ethiopian, ash-coloured, sanguine, and mining, also carry on the recruiting system. The turf-ants (myrmic ) have, like the brown ants, the F. emarginata, c., an instinct of directing each other by means of signs, and of carrying each other, but not precisely in the same fashion. The companions with whom they charge themselves, and also seize with their mandibles, have their body in the air, and the

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

belligerent ants no longer frequented the road, which might have proved the occasion of new combats. M. Huber has witnessed many battles, similar to that of which he has given us so admirable a description. The sanguine ants, which are often attacked by the wood ants, when their nests, though sufficiently remote from each other, are placed along the same hedge, and the paths lengthened into their respective territories become a subject of discord, defend themselves like partisans, and carry on a

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

-hill contained, is deposited in the conquered habitation, and the sanguine ants renounce for ever their ancient country. They establish themselves in the settlement of their ash-coloured congeners, and from there undertake new invasions. M. Huber remarks, that the ash-coloured ants, when attacked by the sanguine, conduct themselves differently from what they do when their business is with the amazons. The [page] 48

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

operations are directed. M. Latreille, in terminating his history of the amazon ants, very judiciously invites naturalists to make the following experiments, for the purpose of completing it 1st. To transport into their primitive habitation the auxiliary ants, and to introduce the neuters of those species which have remained on their native soil, into the mixed ant-hills. 2d. To take away from these last habitations, the larv and nymphs of the auxiliary ants, for the purpose of ascertaining

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

one day deranged the habitation of a horde of yellow ants, perceived that they were changing their domicile, and saw, at ten paces distant, the new ant-hill, which communicated with the old one by a path beaten through the grass, and along which these ants were passing and repassing in great numbers. He remarked that all those that were going towards the new establishment were loaded with their companions, while those who were proceeding in the opposite direction marched one by one. This

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

that no doubt perceived the nature of the evil which had occurred to her, distilled upon the wound a drop of yellowish and limpid fluid from her mouth. M. Huber reports two other traits of similar attachment: Having taken, in the month of April, from the woods, an ant-hill, for the purpose of peopling one of his glass apparatus, he set a portion of the ants at liberty. The freed ants fixed themselves at the foot of a large chesnut-tree, in the garden of the house which he inhabited. The others

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

himself to follow separately the man uvres of each ant, he discovered that they were sporting together, in a sort of mock fights, similar to those in which we often observe young dogs to indulge. Our observer suspected that local and favourable circumstances, such as the happy situation of the nest, abundance of food, and a solitude which places these ants in security from ordinary perils, had disposed the animals to sports of this kind. The other ants, half warlike, and half social, rarely

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

to watch near them for the moment of their melliferous secretion, or otherwise they were endeavouring to produce it by the means which we have above described. It was important to know whether this kind of cohabitation was general; M. Huber proceeded to search in a great number of the nests of yellow ants, and he always found aphides there, especially after warm showers. He was soon a witness of the interested affection which the ants have for them, which even proceeds to a degree of jealousy

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

The sanguine ants present us a second example of the mixed societies, but different from the last, inasmuch as all the workers have forms essentially similar, and concur in the same labours. They have great relations with the wood ants (F. rufa), both in the form and colour of their bodies, and in their mode of building. Their ant-hills, composed of earth, mixed with pieces of leaves, blades of grass, moss, and small stones, the union of all which constitutes a very solid mortar, are usually

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

dried up, under the radical leaves. Ants will follow them thither, and shut themselves up along with them, walling in with humid earth all the vacancies which they find between the soil and the edge of the leaves. Then by excavating the earth which is underneath, they give themselves more space to approach the aphides; and they contrive subterraneous galleries, which lead from thence to their own proper habitation. The ants do not fall into a lethargic state until the temperature is two degrees

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

: they came down from front to rear, then retraced their steps, and followed the general movement. There was always a small number returning back, and it was probably by this means that they directed their course. Having proceeded to about thirty feet from their habitation, they stopped, dispersed, and felt the ground with their antenn , just as dogs scent out the traces of game. They soon discovered a subterraneous abode of ants. The ash-coloured ants had retired to the bottom of their habitation

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

If any ants on the external part of the nest be attacked, some of them, while the others are defending themselves, hurry down to the bottom of their galleries and spread the alarm. The individuals set a guard over the young, in the upper stories, and hasten to carry off their precious deposit into the deepest recesses of the habitation, for the purpose of placing it in shelter from the dangers by which it is threatened. The Hercules ants, which are the largest belonging to these countries

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

path of communication became full of them, and the external surface of the primitive ant-hill was perpetually exhibiting examples of these abductions. In certain glass apparatus, in which M. Huber had shut up some ants, he again witnessed a similar spectacle: he observed that by taking away the first recruiter, the emigration was stopped until another had discovered the place proper for the new establishment. This sort of recruiting lasted for many days, and only ceased when all the ants had

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

obliged to act by surprise; for when the others provoke the attack, they proceed to advertise their companions, and reinforcements come to determine the victory in their favour. These insects are so bitter against their enemies that they will sooner suffer themselves to be torn to pieces than let go their hold. The Hercules ants sometimes wage a cruel war against the sanguine ants, which they proceed in search of even to the gates of their habitation. The latter, only one half as big, but con 2 H 2

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

this manner were formed chains of six, eight, or ten ants, all hooked to each other. The equilibrium was broken only when several warriors belonging to the same republic advanced at once; they forced those that were enchained to let go, and the private combats were recommenced. At the approach of night each party re-entered gradually into the city, which served it as an asylum, and the ants which were killed or taken prisoners not being replaced by others, the number of the combatants

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

developed in August, the period of their depredations is very limited. Very carnivorous, and always occupied with the chase, the sanguine ants cannot do without these auxiliaries, for their little ones would then be without defence. The mining ants, also carried off from their nests when young, render them the same service. But it is very remarkable, that there are some sanguine ant-hills in which these two species of auxiliaries are to be found. Such is the substance of M. Huber's observations