392 



EVOLUTION AND ANIMAL LIFE 



bees, infertile females. Although the life of the ant communities 

 is much less familiar and fully known than that of the bees, it 

 is even more remarkable in its specializations and elaborate- 

 ness. The ant home, or nest, or formicary, is, w r ith most 

 species, a very elaborate underground, many-storied labyrinth 

 of galleries and chambers. Certain rooms are used for the 



storage of food ; certain 

 others as " nurseries ' : 

 for the reception and 

 care of the young; and 

 others as "stables " for 

 the ants' cattle, certain 

 plant lice or scale in- 

 sects which are some- 

 times collected and 

 cared for by the ants. 



The food of ants 

 comprises many kinds 

 of vegetable and ani- 

 mal substances ; but 

 the favorite food, or 

 "national dish," as it 

 has been called, is a 

 sweet fluid which is 

 produced by certain 

 small insects, the plant 

 lice (Aphididse) and 

 scale insects (Coccidse). 

 These insects live on 

 the sap of plants; rose bushes are especially favored with their 

 presence. The worker ants (and we rarely see any ants but the 

 wingless w r orkers, the winged males and females appearing out of 

 the nest only at mating time) find these honey-secreting insects, 

 and gently touch or stroke them with their feelers (antennae) , 

 when the plant lice allow tiny drops of the honey to issue from 

 the body, which are eagerly drunk by the ants. It is manifestly 

 to the advantage of the ants that the plant lice should thrive; but 

 they are soft-bodied, defenseless insects, and readily fall a prey 

 to the wandering predaceous insects like the ladybirds and 

 aphis lions. So the ants often guard small groups of plant 

 lice ; attacking, and driving away the would-be ravagers. When 



FIG. 245. The ant, Solenopsis fugax: a, Male; b, 

 dealated female; c, worker; d, portion of nest show- 

 ing broad galleries of the host ant intersected by 

 the tenuous galleries of Solenopsis, the thief ant. 

 (After Wasmann. See account on page 375.) 



