[8] See Swammerdam's Book of Nature, translated by Dr. Hill. [9] There is a species of ants in Africa, exceedingly numerous, and continually ranging from place to place; not dwelling in colonies or hills, as we see them in England; being armed with strong jaws or forceps, and whatever animal they assail in the course of their travels, they generally by means of their numbers overcome; there being no method of securing themselves, or preserving their lives, but by running into the water. The blacks, as I have been informed by gentlemen who have lived there, will get out of their way, or quit their habitations, taking their children, &c. with them, and wait till the ants have passed them. So numerous is this host, that a deer, hog, &c. being killed and left on the ground, in one night will have the flesh entirely cleared from the bones, and made a complete skeleton. [10] If any person is inclinable to make this trial, I must advise him to collect them in the spring, when they abound with this liquor, and to choose only the females, whose bodies at that season are so large, being as it were overcharged with oil and a great number of eggs, that they seem with difficulty to drag them along. When they have discharged their eggs, they appear much less, and are not furnished with that oil they before abounded with. The males have little, if any of it, therefore are not proper for the purpose. This insect is of a blue colour, and found in the fields during the months of April and May, in the state I have mentioned; the blue colour is not shining and beautiful as that on the belly and legs of the blue dung beetle, but of a fine mazarine blue, without that polish. It is about an inch and half long (the males are shorter), the head and thorax about five-eighths of an inch, being very small and slender for the size of the insect. [11] I have seen in the cabinet of a very curious lady, sister to Ralph Willett, Esq. of Dean Street, Soho, not less than forty of this species, being taken near his seat at Morley Place, near Winbourn, in Dorsetshire, where she informed me they were found in great plenty during the month of June or July, frequenting the privet trees. I have also found them in the environs of London, but not plentifully. [12] The synonyms of this author are all taken from the 12th edition. [13] The primary division of the Annulose subkingdom, now adopted, is into classes, Crustacea, Arachnida, Insecta. [14] The primary division of the class Insecta, now adopted, is into orders, Lepidoptera (called farinaceous by Drury), Coleoptera (called crustaceous by Drury), &c.