CHAPTER II. 



THE EXTERNAL STRUCTURE OF AXTS. 



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" \\'herefore we ought not childishly to neglect the study even of the most 

 despised animals, for in all natural objects there lies something marvellous. 

 And as it is related of Heraclitus that certain strangers who came to visit him, 

 when, they found him warming himself at the kitchen fire, stopped short he 

 bade them enter without fear, for there also were the gods : so we ought to 

 enter without false shame on the examination of all living beings, for in all 

 of them resides something of nature and beauty." Aristotle, " De Partibus 

 Animalium," I, 5. 



The ants form a natural family (Formicidse ), or, according to 

 some authorities, a superfamily ( Formicina or Formicoidea), compris- 

 ing five subfamilies ( Ponerinse, Dorylinse, Myrmicime, Dolichoderinse 

 and Camponotinae), embracing about 5,000 described species, subspecies 

 and varieties, and are placed at the head of the order Hymenoptera, a 

 vast assemblage of insects including also the bees, wasps, ichneumon 

 flies, velvet-ants, saw-flies and many smaller groups. From all the 

 other members of the order the ants may be readily distinguished by a 

 series of characters, perhaps the most striking of which is the differ- 

 entiation of the abdomen into two strongly marked regions, a slender 

 one- or two-jointed, highly mobile pedicel, and a larger, more compact 

 terminal portion, the gaster. Another distinguishing character is fur- 

 nished by the antennae which are elbowed and have the first joint greatly 

 elongated in the female. The species are all social, and with the 

 exception of a few parasitic forms, are always at least trimorphic, i. e., 

 the female is not only sharply differentiated from the male, but itself 

 appears under two very distinct phases, a fertile, queen, or female 

 phase proper, and a usually sterile worker phase. The former is nearly 

 always winged like the male, but loses the wings after fecundation, the 

 latter, except in rare abnormalities, never bears these organs. In a 

 few species the females, and in many the workers may again show 

 differentiation into two sub-phases (Fig. i ). Owing to this remarkable 

 morphological instability or tendency of the female to assume different 



