Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/756

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On opening the ant-W]& a great quantity of their eggs are ufually found. Thefe are extremely (mail and white, and look like the fcatterings of fire fait or fugar. They may be taken up in clufters, but are too minute fingly, to be diftinftly feen by the eye. Examined by the microfcope, .they have very much the appearance of the eggs of fmall birds, and are as clear as the air-bladders of fifties.

The fame eggs are found in the bodies of the female ants on Opening them at a proper feafon. Thefe lie in clufters to- gether under cover of fome light earth or other loofe matter, and when this is removed and they are uncovered, the ants are very induftrious, and cover them again as quick as poffible. The ants themfelves feem to brood over this fpawn, and in a little time every granule of it is hatched into a fmall worm or maggot not larger than a mite. Thefe can fcarce be perceived to move at firft, but afterwards they begin to twift their bo- dies about. They then grow yellowifli and hairy, and in this ftate arrive very nearly at the fize of the ents\ each of thefe has a black fpot on its head. When they are arrived at this fize, they get a film over them of a whitifh colour, and in this cafe, wrapt up into an oval form, are called ant's eggs, tho' very improperly. If thefe fuppofed eggs be opened, there will always be found in them, either the maggot as at firft it went in, or nearer and nearer its change into the ant ftate. In fome, the lineaments of the ant may be compleatly traced, tho' the whole is tranfparent, except the eyes, which are two dark fpecks. A little time after this, the ant. is per- fectly found and obtains its natural colour. If the egg be then opened, it is found ready for the light and crawls about, and foon gets the ufe of its limbs and ftrength for all its motions. .The care thefe creatures take of their, offspring is amazing. When ever a hill js difturbed, all the ants are found bufied in confulting the fafety, not of themfelves, but of the eggs or thefe larger bodies enclofing the maggot or young ant; they carry thefe down any way fo as to get them out of fight, and will do this over and over as often as they are difturbed. They carry away the eggs and verrmicles together in their confufion, but as foon as the danger is over, they carefully fe- parate them, and place each fort in parcels by themfelves un- der fbelter of different kinds, and at various depths, according to the different degree of warmth and coverture the different ftates require.

In the warm feafon of the year, they every morning bring up the eggs, as they are ufually called, to the furface or nearly fb; and from ten in the forenoon to five in the afternoon or there- abouts, all thefe will be found juft under the furface ; and if the hills be examined toward eight in the evening they will be- found to have carried them all down ; and if rainy weather be coming on, it will be necefiary to dig a foot deep or more, in order to find them.

Thefe little infers are the great food of young pheafants and partidges in their wild {late, and the reafon why people feldom fucceed well in the bringing up thofe birds, is their not giving them a proper fupply of that fort of food, as often as they re- quire it. Thefe birds in their wild ftate run to the ant-hills as foon as the day breaks in the morning, and feed heartily. We give them not only improper food, but at improper times ; for a repaft of ants at fuch a time of day, when the birds are faint with faffing, will not recover them, unlefs they are very hardy. Phil, Tranf, No, 23. The ant examined by the microfcope, appears a very beauti- ful creature. Its head is large, and adorned with two very pretty horns, each having twelve joints. Its eyes are protu- berant, and pearled ; its jaws are ferrated or indented with feven little teeth, which exactly tally ; they open fideways, and are able to gape very far afunder, and by this means the ant is often feen grafping and carrying away bodies of three times its own bulk and weight. It is naturally divided into the head, the breaft, and the belly or tail, each of thefe parts being joined to the other by a very flender ligament. From the breaft, three legs come forth on each fide, and the tail is armed with a (ting; but this the creature onlyufes, when pro- voked ; but a poifonous liquor is then convey 'd by it, into the wound it makes, occafioning much pain and fwelling. The whole body is cafed over with a fort of armour, fo hard as fcarce to be penetrated by a lancet, and is thick fet with mining whitifh briftles. The legs alfo are covered with hairs, but they are fhort, and of a darker colour. Baker's Microf. p. 271.

Thefe little creatures are very troublefome in gardens, and in pafture lands,; as well by feeding on the fruit, as by making up hills for their habitation. In the hotter countries, as Italy", Spain, and the Weft- Indies, ants are the great peft of the fields. Trees may be preferved from them by incompaffing the ftem for four fingers breadth, with a roll of wool, new- ly pulled from the fheep's belly ; or by laying faw-duft all round the flump of it. Some anoint the tree with tar, which has the fame effect: ; but then the tar is prejudicial to the tree. We have an account of Englifti ants by Mr. Gould, in 1 2mo. London, 1747.

The five fpecies of this infe£t, which have occurred to the au- thor, are, 1. The h\ll-ant, or hoxfc-ant, 2. The jet-ant.

3. The red-ant. fmall bhek-ant.

4. The common yellow-ant. 5. The

He obferves, that there is in the body of ants, a bag of corrod- ing liquor, which they can throw out to fome diftance. The red ants have a fting like bees; others bite, and make a fmall incifion with their faws, eje&ing fome of their corroding liquor.

As to the cells, government, propagation, &c. of ants, we refer to the book itfelf ; or to Phil. Tranf. N°. 482. Se&. 4. where there is an abftracr. of his book. We mult not omit that Mr. Gould contradicts the vulgar notion of the forefiglit of ants, and their laying up provifions for winter; in Which he agrees with Swammerdam as, before mentioned.

Formica, or Ant, in medicine, denotes a fpecies of warts, called alfo myrmecia.

The name ant, formica, is alfo given to thofe minute varicous intumecfences of the fmalleft blood- vefiefe, obfrrved either in the anus, or the glans of the penis Ca/r. in voc. formica. Some alfo give the appellation ant or formica to the miliary herpes.

Formica leo, the ant-eater, in natural hiftory, the name given by authors to a very remarkable fpecies of 'infect, which is in its perfect ftate, a winged creature, approaching to the nature of the libelke ; but in its prior ftate of a creeping animal, has a wonderful art and addrefs in the catching its prey. It is in this ftate, that it is known by the name of formica leo y as it chiefly feeds upon ants.

It is fomewhat of the nature of the fpider in its way of taking its prey, its manner of fpinning, and in the figure and foft- nefs of its body ; and has in its general figure, fomewhat of the appearance of the millepes, or wocd-loufe; fo that fome have miftaken it at fift fight for that animal. It is of a dirty greyifh colour marked with feme black fpots, and thefe are al- fo many points, which when it is viewed with the microfcope, make it refemble a hedge- hog or porcupine. Its body is com- pofed of fevcral rings, and has thence a' wrinkled look. It has fix legs, four are joined to the breaft, and the other two to a long part which may be taken for its neck ; its head is fmall and flat, and it has two remarkable horns; thefe are about a fixth of an inch Jong, and as thick as a hair, and are hard, hollow, and hooked at the end, like the claws of a cat ; at the origin of each of thefe horns, it has a clear and bright black eye, which fees very diftincily, and gives the creature notice to efcape on fight of the fmalleft object. Mem. Acad. Par. 1704.

Of all food the ant affords the propereft to this animal ; it is not able to hunt after prey, nor to deftroy large infecls, it can only draw into its fnares, fuch as come by its habitation, and of thefe very few are fuch as he can manage ; all the winged tribe are able to efcape by flight, and the beetle kinds, and others that have hard (bells upon their bodies, are of no ufe to him, as his horns cannot pierce them. The fmallnefs of the ant, and its want of wings, make it the deftined prey of this devourer. The manner in which he catches his prey is this. J

He ufually encamps under an old wall, that he may be fhel- tered from the injuries of the weather, and he always choofes a place where the foil is compofed of a fine dry fand ; in this he makes a pit of the fhape of a funnel, or an inverted hol- low cone; he executes this in the following manner. If he intends the pit to be but fmall, he thrufts down his hinder part into the fand, and by degrees plunges himfelf backward into it, and when he has got to a certain depth, he tofies out the loofe fand which has'run down with his head, artfully throwing it off beyond the edges of his pit; thus he lies at the bottom of a fmall hollow, which is wideft at the top, and comes Hoping down to his body. But if he is to make a larger pit, more pains is required to bring it to perfection. He firft traces in the furface of the fand, a large circle, which is the erected bafe or mouth of the pit he is to make in form of an inverted cone ; he then bu- ries himfelf in the fand near the edge of this circle, and care- fully throws up the fand above him, with his head toiling it out beyond the circumference of the circle. Thus he continues his work running down backwards in a fptral line all the way, and carefully throwing off the fand from above him, till he is come to the place of his reft, which is the point or reverted apex of the hollow cone, he has formed by his paffage. The length of his neck and the flatnefs of his head, gives him a power of ufing the whole as a fpade, and throwing off the fand with great eafe,and his ftrength in this part is fo great that he is able to throw off a quantity of it, to fix inches diftance. This is a power he oftener exerts however, in the throwing away the remains of the animals he has fet] upon, that his den may not become frightful to other creatures of the fame fpecies, the feeing their fellow carcafles about it. When he has finifhed his pit, he buries himfelf at the bot- tom of it in the fand,. leaving no part above ground, but the tipa of his two horns, which he expands to the two fides of the pit. In this condition he lies and waits for his prey, and never comes up after it. When an ant or any other fuch creature chances to walk over the edges of his pit, his fteps

throw