TENACITY OF LIFE IN ANTS. 307 



A winged queen of Camponotus aincricamts regurgitated food to 

 her dealated sister queen, on the twenty-fifth, the thirty-fifth, the 

 fortieth and the sixty-second day of fasting, the visible transfer 

 of food occupying several minutes. 



The ants cannot, however, be considered to virtually possess a 

 common stomach. There was great difference in the periods 

 within which ants of the same colony and species, in the same 

 cell, perished from deprivation of food. 



The feeding of the larva by different ant-nurses doubtless con- 

 duces to its vigor, because the nurses forage in diverse localities 

 bringing back nutriment containing unlike chemical elements 

 which they transfer by regurgitation to the growing young. 



Doubtless the adult ants also benefit greatly through the habit 

 of regurgitating food to each other. Going afield in many 

 directions, one finds nectar, another berries, another nut-kernels, 

 another insect flesh, another egg-yolk, and many give of their 

 garnered nutriment to their companions in the nest. Variety in 

 the food supply for each individual is in fairly direct ratio to the 

 number of fellow-workers who reach new sources of sustenance. 

 Vigor gained by the adults through varied diet and the assimi- 

 lation of new chemical compositions, would tend to increase the 

 stamina of the growing young through an improved pabulum as 

 well as through heredity. 



There is notable difference in the average size and vigor of the 

 individuals in different colonies of ants of the same species. 



RELATION OF SEX AND FOOD TO TENACITY OF LIFE. 



Male ants shared all tests here presented, but whatever the 

 test undergone, the males showed far less tenacity of life than 

 did either the queens or the workers. 



If, as has long been held, the product of unfertilized ant-eggs 

 are males while the product of fertilized ant-eggs are females, 

 then it may be that the absence of certain chemical elements con- 

 tained in the fertilized egg is a cause of lesser tenacity of life in 

 the male ants. 



In all tests of vitality, ants of largest stature among their 

 species showed greatest tenacity of life. Whether the test applied 



