Value of the ants as purifying and cleansing agents, 245 An incident at Barbadoes, 246 The carpenter-ants, and their ingenuity, described, 247 Singular affection which they display for the young, 251 They watch over them with incessant vigilance; their mode of inter-communication, 251 A picture is given of the economy of an ant-hill, 252 In their labours the ants solve numerous problems by sheer intuition, 253 Their nuptials described as an idyllic poem, 254 What remained in the morning, 255 CHAPTER III.--THE ANTS: THEIR FLOCKS AND THEIR SLAVES. The writer's pain at discovering among the ants the existence of slavery, 259 Considerations which induced him to continue his studies, 260 He finds that the ants keep their "herds of cattle," 261 And discovers a reason for their apparent encouragement of slavery, 262 Mixed communities of ants; workers and warriors, 263 The workers are in reality the masters, though they seem to be slaves, 264 A campaign described; red against black, 265 Ant-societies regulated on the principle of division of labour, 266 Their species undergo modifications in special circumstances, 267 The influence of intellect over brute force exemplified, 268 CHAPTER IV.--THE ANTS: CIVIL WAR--EXTERMINATION OF THE COMMUNITY. It is the punishment of the tyrant that he cannot readily set free his captive, 271 The caged nightingale, and the clod of earth, 272 This clod proves to contain a republic of carpenter-ants, 272 An effort is made to found a new community; difficulties in the way, 273 An encounter between the carpenter-ants and some mason-ants, 274 In which the victory is on the side of the Little, 275 Who carry off the young of the conquered, 276 A digression comments on the helplessness of the nymph, or larva, 277 And points out its exceeding suffering in the hands of a victorious enemy, 278 The writer is shocked by the relentless cruelty of the conquerors, 279 Who have left but one poor fugitive to mourn the death of his companions, 280 CHAPTER V.--THE WASPS: THEIR FURY OF IMPROVISATION. Sensation caused by the intrusion of a wasp, 283 A panegyric on a much-abused insect, 284 Excessive industry of the wasp, 285 It works, first, as a paper manufacturer; and next, as a mason, 285 It builds its city with curious forethought and ingenuity, 286 The mother-wasp, a remarkable example of self-sacrifice, 287 Wasps distinguished by their patriotic enthusiasm, 288 At the approach of winter they dissolve the commonwealth, 289 CHAPTER VI.--"THE BEES" OF VIRGIL.