FEMALE GOVERNMENT 



Her queenhood is wholly fanciful, except in the first 

 stages of her independent career. Her motherhood is 

 the great fact of life to her and her fellows. It is as a 

 mother that she is the destined foundress of a new com- 

 munity. After her isolation or adoption into an es- 

 tablished commune, which follows the marriage swarm, 

 she begins to lay eggs which are developed into workers 

 in due time. 



If she goes solitary, her larger size and generous 

 nurture have accumulated enough substance to supply 



Fig. 69 A QUEEN ANT SURROUNDED BY 



HER COURTIER GUARD 



food to the initial colony with little or no outside forag- 

 ing, and this is imparted, after the manner of her kind, 

 by regurgitation. All the duties of nurture, nursing, 

 washing, keeping up and keeping clean the premises, are 

 wrought by her within her secluded and protected quar- 

 ters until a little band of helpers has been reared around 

 her. These at once begin to share labors with the 

 queen mother (Fig. 69). 



When they have passed their callow period, they break 

 the original bounds and venture forth in search of food. 

 Day b}^ day the number of inhabitants increases; the 



157 



