PROBLEM OF COMMUNAL DEPENDENTS 



Besides the fertile queen, or queens, and the host of 

 brooding larva', our ant community is taxed with the 

 support of the winged virgin queens and males (Fig. 74). 

 For ants are not apterous insects, unless we take the 

 worker as the original type of the order. The parents of 



Jg 74 - YOUNG WINGED QUEEN OF HONEY-ANT (SIDE VIEW) 



nearly all known species have, and from a remote period 

 have had, wings. These have been lost to the maternal 

 stocks through the exigencies of an underground or 

 interarboreal habitat; and the winged forms have been 

 preserved in females and males to favor that flight and 

 commerce in the air by which species have been pre- 

 served and distributed. The swarming of winged ants 

 on a soft September day is a sight not easily forgotten 

 by a new 7 observer, and which is not apt to lose its in- 

 terest to the adept, As often as the writer has seen it, 

 he still feels the thrill of excitement that pervades the 

 commune, as he sees the hosts of winged creatures pour 



out of the formicary gates. 



173 



