ANT COMMUNITIES 



their game, as dogs at play will do, it was noticed that 

 they never took such liberty with the workers. The 

 latter evidently kept close watch upon the sporting 

 princesses. They occasionally saluted them with their 

 antenme in the usual way, or touched them at the 

 abdomen, but did not interfere with the sport. Their 

 attitude reminded one of that of an under-teacher, or 

 usher, charged with the duty of conducting, or oversee- 

 ing a bevy of seminary girls in their daily exercise in 

 the open air. 



In order to test the strictness of this watch, one of 

 the group was thrown, by a quick motion of the hand, 

 from the vicinage of the gate to the verge of the plaza. 

 She was instantly surrounded by several workers, who 

 began a determined effort to control her action, trying 

 to compel her to return toward the gate. The queenling 

 was confused or stubborn, and opposed her strength 

 quite vigorously to the purpose of the guard. For some 

 time the party floundered among the stumps of grass- 

 stalks in the little clearing on the margin of the plaza, 

 the bulky form of the one stubbornly set against the 

 quiet persistence of the others. It was noticeable that 

 the guards carefully abstained from anything like hurt- 

 ful violence to their charge, and that she did not attempt 

 to escape by flight. The issue of this trial of will-power 

 was not determined, for the refractory queenling was 

 needed as a specimen. 



It is perhaps worth noting that the worker castes were 

 never seen at play. If records have been made by other 

 observers of such light behavior on their part, the author 

 has not noted them. The truth seems to be that their 

 life is so strenuous from its first experiences of imago- 

 hood to the end of their career, that there is no time for 



iss 



