ANT, נמלה, in the Turkish and Arabic, _neml_, Prov. vi, 6; xxx, 25. It is a little insect, famous from all antiquity for its social habits, its economy, unwearied industry, and prudent foresight. It has afforded a pattern of commendable frugality to the profuse, and of unceasing diligence to the slothful. Solomon calls the ants “exceeding wise; for though a race not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.” He therefore sends the sluggard to these little creatures, to learn wisdom, foresight, care, and diligence. “Go to the ant; learn of its ways, be wise; It early heaps its stores, lest want surprise. Skill’d in the various year, the prescient sage Beholds the summer chill’d in winter’s rage. Survey its arts; in each partition’d cell Economy and plenty deign to dwell.” That the ant hoarded up grains of corn against winter for its sustenance, was very generally believed by the ancients, though modern naturalists seem to question the fact. Thus Horace says, “------_Sicut Parvula (nam exemplo est) magni formica laboris Ore trahit quodcunque potest, atque addit acervo Quem struit, haud ignara ac non incauta futuri; Quæ, simul inversum contristat aquarius annum, Non usquam prorepit, et illis utitur ante Quæsitis sapiens._” _Sat._ i, l. i, v. 33. “For thus the little ant (to human lore No mean example) forms her frugal store, Gather’d with mighty toil on every side, Nor ignorant nor careless to provide For future want; yet, when the stars appear That darkly sadden the declining year, No more she comes abroad, but wisely lives On the fair stores industrious summer gives.” The learned Bochart, in his _Hierozoicon_, has displayed his vast reading on this subject, and has cited passages from Pliny, Lucian, Ælian, Zoroaster, Origen, Basil, and Epiphanius, the Jewish rabbins and Arabian naturalists, all concurring in opinion that ants cut off the heads of grain, to prevent their germinating; and it is observable that the Hebrew name of the insect is derived from the verb נמל, which signifies _to cut off_, and is used for cutting off ears of corn, Job xxiv, 24. The following remarks are from “the Introduction to Entomology,” by Kirby and Spence: