comstock] 



INSECT STUDY 



155 



nest while taking care of them. We must never combine 

 specimens from different colonies, for ants in their little nests 

 agree only when they are of the same sisterhood. After 

 gathering as many of the same colony as possible, cover the 

 can, carry to the schoolroom and gently empty the captives, 

 dirt, young and all, on the trop of the board which covers the 

 nest. As an ant's first thought is never for its own safety, but 

 for the preservation of the young, the little workers at once be- 

 gin to look about for some safe, dark place, where their eggs 

 and larvae may be protected from the dry air and from the light. 

 Soon they find the way into the nest at the cut-off corner of the 

 upper pane of glass, and begin to carry in the young, usually 

 taking the pupae first, for ants seem to realize the cost and 

 care of rearing their families and when their households are at- 

 tacked, save first, the oldest of the helpless inmates. After they 

 have carried all their family into the nest, which should be with- 

 in two or three hours, we may remove the dirt left on the cover, 

 and the nest is ready for observation. 



Food provided for the prisoners should be soft but not 

 fluid, and should be placed on the plank rather than in the nest, 

 for then their preferences may be observed and we are better 

 able to clean away the refuse. Crackers or bread soaked in 

 sweetened water, cake, jam, sugar, crushed yolk of hard-boiled 

 Qgg, bits of raw meat or freshly killed insects may all prove ac- 

 ceptable to the little people. 



What things shall the teacher and pupils watch for in the 

 glass house, as the ants go about their business within it? So 

 many and so wonderful are they that this article would be far 

 too long if I were to mention the half of them. 



First, of course, should be the appearance of the little six- 

 footed Martha herself. Her slender thorax, with its three pairs 



of most efficient legs. 

 stronger and more 

 swift, in comparison to 

 her size, than those of 

 a Marathon winner: 

 the head, with its for- 

 midable jaws, working 

 sidewise like a pair of 

 shears, with which she 

 can behead a foe in 



^ „, battle, crush and carry 



Ants tEEDiNr, and at Their Toilets 



