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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Let us follow as briefly as possible the eventful life history of the 

 queen ant. After more protracted larval and pupal stages than those 

 of the worker and male — more protracted in order that she may store 

 up more food and hence more energy in her body — she hatches as a 

 sensitive callow in a colony at the height of its annual development. In 

 other words, she is born into a community teeming with queens, workers 

 and males, and the larva? and pupae of these various forms at the season 

 of their greatest activity and growth. From all sides a shower of 

 stimuli must be constantly raining in upon her delicate organization as 

 she tarries for days or even weeks in the dark galleries of the parental 



Fig. 1. Incipient Colony of Carpenter Ant {Camponolus pennsylvanicus) , consisting 

 of the queen, three minim workers and a packet ot young larvae, inhabiting the abandoned 

 pupa cas? of a beetle [Rhagium lineal 'urn j under pint- bark. About natural size. 



nest, while her color gradually deepens and her integument acquires 

 its mature consistency. During this her prenuptial life, she may 

 assist the workers in carrying about, feeding and cleaning the brood. 

 She eats independently of the food brought into the nest by the for- 

 aging workers. She may occasionally join the workers in excavating 

 chambers and galleries. If she belongs to a slave-making species she 

 may even accompany the workers on their cocoon-robbing expeditions. 

 Although she shows that she is able to perform all these actions sup- 

 posed to be peculiar to the workers, she often does so with a certain 

 desultory incoherency. 



When fully mature she becomes impatient for her marriage flight 

 and must often be forcibly detained in the nest by the workers till the 

 propitious hour arrives when the males and females from all the nests 

 in the neighborhood rise high into the air and celebrate their nuptials. 



