THE QUEEN ANT 



295 



quate supply of food-tissue in the first place. Only the very best en- 

 dowed individuals live to preserve the species from extinction. I know 

 of no better example of natural selection through the survival of the 

 fittest. 



It is certain that the colonies of most species are founded in the 

 manner here described. It is certain, moreover;, that all this is rendered 

 possible by the nutritive endowment of the queen. As the winged germ 

 of the species she has all the advantages that a yolk-laden has over a 

 comparatively yolkless egg. Xow among the 5,000 known species of 

 ants we should expect to find considerable differences in the quantity of 

 nutriment stored up in the young queen. And this is unquestionably 

 the case. In some species the queens are of enormous size, in others 

 they are very small compared with the workers. And since queens of 



Fig. 7. Fungus Garden of Atla sexdens Fourteen Days after the Nuptial Flight. 

 There are about 100 eggs which the queen has placed in a depression in the middle of the 

 garden. Near the periphery there are three drop9 of the fecal liquid with which the queen 

 manures the garden. (Alter J. Huber.) 



average dimensions are able to start colonies by themselves alone, we 

 should expect that unusually large queens would be able to accomplish 

 even more, and very small queens less. This, too, is borne out by obser- 

 vation. 



Unusually large queens are found in the genus Attn, a group of 

 American ants that raise fungi for food, and are, so far as known, quite 

 unable to subsist on anything else. The female Atta on leaving the 

 parental nest, is so well endowed with food-tissue, that she not only can 

 raise a brood of workers without taking nourishment, but has energy to 

 spare for the cultivation of a kitchen garden. She carries the germ of 

 this garden from the parental nest in the form of a pellet of fungus 



