regard to Solomon's words respecting the ant, Kirby and Spence are of opinion ' ' that, if they are properly considered, it will be found that the interpretation which seems to favor the ancient error respecting ants has been fathered upon them rather than fairly de- duced from them. He does not affirm that the ant, which he proposes to the sluggard as an example, laid up in her magazines stores of grain against winter, but that, with considerable prudence and foresight, she makes use of proper seasons to collect a supply of pro- visions sufficient for her purposes. There is not a word in them implying that she stores up grain or other provisions. She prepares her bread and gathers her food (namely, such food as is suited to her) in sum- mer and harvest (that is, when it is most plentiful), and thus shows her wisdom and prudence by using the advantages offered to her."
It is true that Col. Sykes speaks (Transactions of Entomol. Soc. ii, 103) of a species of Indian ant which he calls Atta providens, so called from the fact ve* of his having found a large store of grass-seeds in its nest ; but the ' amount of that gentleman's obser- vations merely go to show that ! this ant carries seeds underground, and brings them again to the sur- face after they have got wet dur- ing the monsoons, apparently to dry. "There is not," writes Mr. F. Smith (Catalogue \ of the Formicidw in the British Museum, 1858, p. 180), I "any evidence of the seeds having been stored for I food ;" he observes that the processionary ant of Bra- zil ((Ecodoma cephalotes) carries immense quantities of portions of leaves into its underground nests, and that it was supposed that these leaves were for food; but that Mr. Bates satisfied himself that the leaves were for the purpose of lining the channels of the nest, and not for food. There is no evidence that any portion ; of plants ever forms an article of their diet. The fact is, that ants seem to delight in running away ! with almost any thing they find — small portions of ! sticks, leaves, little stones — as any one can testify who j has cared to watch the habits of this insect. This will explain the erroneous opinion which the ancients held with respect to that part of the economy of the ant j now under consideration ; nor is it, perhaps, necessary j to conclude that the error originated in observers mis- I taking the cocoons for grains of corn, to which they ■ bear much resemblance. It is scarcely credible that | Aristotle, Virgil, Horace, etc., who all speak of this insect storing up grains of corn, should have been so far misled, or have been such bad observers, as to have taken the cocoons for grains. Ants do carry off ' grains of corn, just as they cam' off other things, not, however, as was stated, for food, but for their nests. ! "They are great robbers," says Dr. Thomson (The Land and the Book, p. 337), "and plunder by night as | well as by day ; and the farmer must keep a sharp eye to his floor, or they will abstract a large quantity of ' grain in a single night." See Cistern.
It is right to state that a well-known entomologist, ! the Rev. F. W. Hope, in a paper " On some Doubts re- specting the (Economy of Ants" (Trans. Entom. Soc. j ii, 211), is of opinion that Col. Sykes's observations do tend to show that there are species of exotic ants which store up food for winter consumption ; but it must be remembered that Mr. Bates's investigations ' are subsequent to the publication of that paper. (See Encycl. Brit. 8th ed. s.v.)
The particular species of ant referred to by Solo- mon has not been identified ; and, in fact, ants have only latterly become the subjects of accurate observa- tion. The investigations of Latreille (Histoire Na- turelle des Fourmis, Par. 1802), Gould, Geer, Huber, and Kirby and Spence, have dissipated many errone- ous notions respecting them, and revealed much in-
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teresting information concerning their domestic poli- ty, language, migrations, affections, passions, virtues, wars, diversions, etc. (see Penny Cyclopcedia, s. v.). The following facts are selected as relevant to scrip- tural illustration. Ants dwell together in societies ; and although they have " no guide, overseer, or ruler," yet they have all one soul, and are animated bv one object — their own welfare, and the welfare of each other. Each individual strenuously pursues his own peculiar duties, and regards (except in the case of females), and is regarded by, every other member of the republic with equal respect and affection. They devote the utmost attention to thsir young. The egg is cleaned and licked, and gradually expands under this treatment till the worm is hatched, which is then tended and fed with the most affectionate care. They continue their assiduity to the pupa, or chrysalis, which is the third transformation. They heap up the pupae, which greatly resemble so many grains of wheat, or rather rice, by hundreds in their spacious lodges, watch them in an attitude of defence, carry them out to enjoy the radiance of the sun, and remove them to different situations in the nest, according to the re- quired degree of temperature ; open the pupa, and, at the precise moment of the transformation, disinthrall the new-born insect of its habiliments. — Kitto, s. v.