ANT COMMUNITIES 



variably formed at the posterior pole of the ant cocoon, 

 directly opposite the anterior pole from which, as the 

 point next to its jaws in its recumbent position, the 

 antling emerges, and to which, as the point of fracture, 

 the strain and force within and without are directed. 

 Thus the little squatter sovereign, in its tiny puparium, 

 goes scot-free and quite unharmed to the communal 

 kitchen-middens, along with the abandoned cocoon of 

 its voke-fellow. So it befalls that, as Professor Wheeler 



/ 9 



quaintly puts it, " after a privileged existence as free 

 pensioner and bedfellow to a generous host, it is unwit- 

 tingly carried away in the worn - out bedclothes and 

 consigned to the family rag-pile." 



Here one must note another admirable " happening." 

 The period for the Dipteron to emerge falls later than 

 that of the ant. Therefore its hatching - place is the 

 emmet dump where it has been deported by its foster- 

 mothers, the ants. Fortunately for the newly fledged 

 insect, since nature has not furnished it with fit imple- 

 ments to break through such formidable walls, it finds 

 a wide and effectual door already open in the tough 

 cocoon. It is once more debtor to its sometime host for 

 that hospitality which not only "welcomes the coming," 

 but also "speeds the parting guest," and crawls out of 

 the rent made by the emerging antling. 



Thenceforth its new world lies before it. It finds its 

 mate. It follows the mysterious impulse of its kind, 

 and returns to the commune whence it came, or flies to 

 some other colony of Pachycondyla harpax, and, mousing 

 among the robust larvae thereof, drops its minute egg, 

 and- But there our story of the cycle of her life must 

 end. 



And what a wonderful story it is ! Here, if ever, one 



240 



