PROBLEM I. The Khids of Ajii7Jials of the Earth 



47 



Fig. 6 1 Apbids (plant lice) and ants on a steni. 

 The apbids produce a sweet liquid (hojieydew) 

 which the ants like, (hugh spencer) 



cleared out. You may have heard these 

 bundles called ant eggs, but they are 

 much too large to be eggs; they are the 

 pupae. Most of you, too, have seen in 

 fields, or at the edge of the forest, 

 mounds of earth with many ants scur- 

 rying about. These anthills may be two 

 or three feet in diameter and may house 

 several thousand insects. 



Underground, in the dark, passage- 

 ways are tunneled; chambers of many 

 kinds are dug out. There is much rush- 

 ing to and fro with bits of food or soil. 

 All this work is done by the workers. 

 Every nest houses many workers, thou- 

 sands of them, and one much larger ant 

 known as the quee?i, a female who does 

 nothing except lay eggs. Sometimes, 

 there are ^several queens in one nest. And 

 there are, too, a very small number of 

 male ants that do no work. But the vast 

 majority are workers. Some workers de- 

 vote themselves to the care of the young. 

 All the feeding of larvae and the moving 

 about of larvae or pupae from room to 

 room is done by the workers. 



Fig. 6i An aJit tejiding a mealy bug. Mealy 

 bugs are relatives of the apbids. J hey also tnake 

 honey dew. (amer7can can co.) 



Winged female 



Female minus wings 

 (queen) 



Workers 



Fig. 63 The life history of the little black ant. 

 How many kinds of adults are there? What 

 does each do? 



Among some species of ants there 

 are Morkers that biologists have called 

 soldiers because they have very large 

 biting jaws and apparently devote them- 

 selves to defending the rest of the com- 

 munity within the nest. Some warlike 

 species even raid the nests of other ants. 

 Among other less warlike species the 

 workers make mold gardens and raise 

 aphids. See Figures 61 and 62. 



