INSECT LIFE IN INDIA. 



G8I 



The larvae are helpless maggots, fed and tended by the workers or by 

 the females. The pupae are enclosed in silken cocoons, these being 

 the popularly called ' ant's eggs ' which may be seen in fine weather 

 exposed on the top of the nest. 



Ants build nests which consist of passages and chambers dug out in 

 earth and rotten wood, stumps of trees, etc., or they may build in 

 the crowns of trees or bushes amongst the leaves which they fasten 

 together. The burrowing ones generally pile up the earth they dig 

 out in hillocks an 1 mounds above the level of the surface of the 

 ground. 



The two most important 

 sub-families of the ants 

 are the Formicides, which 

 have only one knot in 

 their peduncle, the abdo- 

 men being usually not 

 furnished with a sting (Fig. 

 80), and the Myrmicides 

 with two well-marked 

 knots in the peduncle, the 

 abdomen being usually 

 furnished with a sting. 



An example of the Formicides is the large vicious red ant, (Ecophylla 



smaragdina (Fig. 81), 

 of India. This ant in- 

 habits trees, making a 

 nest of the leaves which 

 are fastened together. 

 Mr. E. E. Green has 

 recorded a peculiar habit 

 of this ant. The adult 



has no material to enable 

 Fig. 81. — (Ecophylla smaragdina. The red ant of . , 



India. Worker using a larva for spinning. lt to fasten tlle leaves 



(After Sharp.) (India.) together, but the larva 



possesses glands which secrete a sticky substance. Several ants hold the 



leaves together whilst others, each holding a grub between its mandibles, 



use it to serve as an animated gum bottle to stick the edges of the leaves 



B 



Fig. 80.— Abdomens of ants. A. Formicides with 

 one joint, b, to peduncle. B. Myrmi- 

 cides, with two joints £», e, to ped- 

 uncle. 



together. 



Fig. 8 1 shows an ant holding a larva in this manner. 



