HYMENOPTERA 957 



After the pairing of the sexes the males soon die and each female 

 proceeds to found a new colony if she is not captured by workers 

 and taken into a colony already established or finds her own way 

 into one. Except among the parasitic ants the method of founding 

 a colony is as follows: The female breaks off her wings; then seeks 

 out a small cavity under a stone or under bark or makes one in the 

 ground. She closes the entrance to this cavity and remains isolated 

 without food for weeks or months while the eggs in her ovaries are 

 developing. During this period there is a histolysis of the large 

 wing-muscles the products of which are used as food . When the eggs 

 are mature they are laid and the larvag that hatch from them are fed 

 by the female, or queen as she is termed, with her saliva till they 

 are ready to pupate. As the young queen takes no food during this 

 period, that fed the larvae must be derived from the fat stored in her 

 body and the dissolved wing-muscles. The adults that are developed 

 from this first brood or larv« are workers, but owing to the limited 

 amount of food that they have received they are abnormally small ; 

 that is, of the form known as worker minors. These open the chamber 

 in which they were developed and go forth to collect food for them- 

 selves and for the queen, and they take charge of the second brood 

 of larvae, which being supplied with abundant food develop into 

 larger workers. The nest is now enlarged by the addition of new 

 chambers and the growth of the colony continues. A few years later 

 numerous males and females are developed, which at the proper time 

 leave the nest for their nuptial flight. 



The method of founding colonies described above is the usual one. 

 But in some species the females have lost the power of establishing 

 a colony unaided and must be adopted by workers of her own species 

 or by workers of an alien species. The adoption of a queen by workers 

 of an alien species explains the existence of some of the mixed colonies 

 which are sometimes observed. The practice of slave-making de- 

 scribed later, is the explanation of others. In certain highly parasitic 

 species the worker class is wanting and the queens must become 

 established in the nest of an alien species. 



The worker ants are so-called because upon this caste devolve all 

 the labors of the colony after they appear on the scene in the founda- 

 tion chamber. As a rule workers are sterile; but sometimes, as with 

 bees, and wasps, fertile workers occur. It is believed that on!}' males 

 are developed from eggs laid by workers. 



The feeding habits of ants differ greatly in different members of 

 the family. Some of the more primitive forms are strictly carnivo- 

 rous, feeding on insects and other small animals that they can destroy ; 

 while others add vegetable substances to their diet. Many feed on 

 sweet fluids, as sap exuding from wounded stems, the nectar excreted 

 by extrafloral nectar glands, and honey-dew produced by aphids, 

 membracids, the larvee of certain butterflies, and other insects, and 

 the leaf-cutting ants cultivate fungi upon which they feed. 



Ants also lick their larvae in order to feed on the exudates excreted 

 by them. This exchange of nourishment between the workers and 



