SOCIAL LIFE 243 



biting off the radicle, and bringing the seeds in damp weather 

 out of the nest to dry them in the sun. When, as sometimes 

 happens through neglect of these precautions, some of the 

 stored seeds begin to sprout they are carried out of the nest 

 and placed on the surrounding soil to form what may be 

 termed a refuse heap. From such rejected seeds plants may 

 grow up, and the presence of these close to the ants' nests 

 has led some students to the mistaken inference that the 

 insects have deliberately sown the seeds there in the anticipa- 

 tion of a harvest ! Much recent information on these 

 fascinating creatures will be found in Wheeler's great 

 book (1910). 



All worker- ants feed the larvae of their nests, but Wheeler 

 has recently (191 8, 1923) laid stress on the fact that among 

 ants, as among wasps, the feeding is reciprocal. Some 

 ant-grubs, like the wasp-larvae, supply a salivary juice from 

 the mouth to appease the workers that attend on them, but 

 the common habit of the ant-larva is to " sweat a fatty 

 secretion through the general integument of the body." 

 The licking of grubs by the female ants (whether queens or 

 workers) is not therefore to be interpreted as a sign of 

 affection or solicitude but as a method of obtaining attractive 

 liquid food. In ant communities the practice of mutual 

 feeding (trophallaxis) is thus almost universal, not only 

 among the developed adults, but between these and the 

 helpless grubs which they tend. 



The larvae of ants are, like those of bees and wasps, 

 legless grubs, but while in the latter groups the larval 

 cuticle is smooth and bare, that of the ant-grubs is usually 

 covered with hairs, which may be simple, forked, hooked, 

 branched, or sawlike and, in some cases, borne on distinct 

 tubercles. The hairiness of ant larvae is definitely suited to 

 their manner of life, as by means of these cuticular out- 

 growths, the grubs are kept from direct contact with the 

 damp walls of earthen nest galleries, while they are anchored 

 to the walls or to the under surface of covering stones. The 

 hairs of many neighbouring grubs may interlock so as to 

 * hold the young larvae together in packets," and enable 



