ANT COMMUNITIES 



latter the optic and olfactory lobes are large. [F. 5, 

 p. 490.] 



Life within the precincts of ant communes is largely 

 hidden from the outside world. However, one mav get 



*- o 



fairly truthful glimpses thereof from studies of formi- 

 caries arranged in glass vessels. Many such, which were 

 artificial only in their limited spheres and furnished 

 food, for they were built up by the inmates wholly upon 

 their own lines, have yielded the author numerous facts 

 and hints from which he has pictured images of interior 

 life that cannot be far from correct. Observations of 

 actions on and around the nest exteriors, and analysis 



/ 



of the mounds themselves, have added to the accuracy 

 of such inferences. 



But much remains unknown, and we are left largely 

 to conjecture in representing the life of the winged males 

 and females that fill up the cavernous rooms and crowd 

 the galleries of the Alleghany mound-makers and similar 

 emmet architects. We can fancy the industrious work- 



tt 



ers passing from one to another among these throngs 

 of winged dependents, feeding them from the liquid 

 sweets stored within their crops during foraging trips. 

 How eagerly are welcomed arrivals from the outer world, 



/ 



of these voyagers! And how zealously the incomers 

 hasten to their task! A bevy of boarding-school boys 

 could not give heartier greeting in their living-quarters 

 to the latest arrival from home, laden with spoils of 

 storeroom and kitchen, than the}* receive. 



We see the crowding and the general stir as the food- 

 bearers come round : the flutter of wings, the haste and 

 hustling of greedy ones after undue portions, since even 

 an ant-hill is not exempt from such traits, especially 



(one might almost say, exclusively) among the idlers. 



184 



