THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED TO ALL PHASES OF NATURE-STUDY IN 

 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 



Vol. I NOVEMBER, 1905 No. 6 



THE COMMUNAL LIFE OF ANTS 



BY ADELE M. FIELDE 



[Editorial Note. — In No. 1 of this journal there was published a de- 

 scription of the ant-nests used by Miss Fielde in her researches. Readers 

 who constructed the nests and stocked them have requested information 

 concerning the habits of the insects. There is no popular account of the 

 communal life of ants in the publications commonly available for teach- 

 ers and students, and hence the present paper will be a valuable contribution 

 to nature-study literature. Very many of the points in this paper may be 

 easily verified by careful observation of ants kept in the nests already men- 

 tioned. In other numbers of The Review writers have urged that bees 

 are suitable for schoolroom observation ; but this and the earlier paper by 

 Miss Fielde make it evident that the closely allied ants are scarcely in- 

 ferior to the bees as subjects for schoolroom studies.] 



Among the four thousand known species of ants the colors 

 range from pale yellow through red, brown and gray to the 

 intensest black, sometimes with parti-colored bands, and sometimes 

 with iridescent tints of blue, green or purple. In size they vary 

 according to species from that of a needle point to a length of 

 two inches. Ants do not grow after hatching, the stature of each 

 individual being determined while in the larval stage for its 

 whole lifetime. 



The ant begins its life in an egg, which resembles a small pearl. 

 The eggs are viscid on their surfaces, and the ants put them 

 together so that they will adhere in packets, which may be car- 

 ried to parts of the nest offering suitable warmth, darkness and 

 humidity. After a period of about twenty days for incubation, 

 there issues from the egg a glossy, white larva that is transversely 

 marked by twenty slight constrictions and that has hooks upon 

 its surface permitting it to be securely attached to its fellows so 



