242 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



intermixed with particles of salt and sugar, which, to an ordinary observer, 

 they very much resemble ; but the result was constantly in favor of the 

 sagacity of the ants. They invariably selected the eggs from whatever 

 materials they were mixed with, and re-arranged them as before.^ 



New and more severe labors succeed the birth of the young grubs which 

 are disclosed from the eggs after a few days. The working ants are now 

 almost without remission engaged in supplying their wants and forwarding 

 their growth. Every evening an hour before sunset they regularly remove 

 the whole brood, as well as the eggs and pupse, which in an old nest all 

 require attention at the same time, to cells situated lower down in the earth, 

 where they will be safe from the cold ; and in the morning they as con- 

 stantly remove them again towards the surface of the nest. If, however, 

 there is a prospect of cold or wet weather, the provident ants forbear on 

 that day transporting their young from the inner cells, aware that their 

 tender frames are unable to withstand an inclement sky. What is particu- 

 larly worthy of notice in this herculean task, the ants constantly regulate 

 their proceedings by the sun, removing their young according to the earlier or 

 later rising and setting of that luminary. As soon as his first rays begin to shine 

 on the exterior of the nest, the ants that are at the top go below in great 

 haste to rouse their companions, whom they strike with their antennae, or, 

 when they do not seem to comprehend them, drag with their jaws to the 

 summit till a swarm of busy laborers fill every passage. These take up 

 the larvae and pupae, which they hastily transport to the upper part of their 

 habitation, where they leave them a quarter of an hour, and then carry 

 them into apartments where they are sheltered from the sun's direct rays.^ 



Severe as this constant and unremitted daily labor seems, it is but a small 

 part of what the affection of the working ants leads them readily to 

 undertake. The feeding of the young brood, which rests solely upon 

 them, is a more serious charge. The nest is constantly stored with larvae 

 the y^ar round, during all which time, except in winter when the whole 

 society is torpid, they require feeding several times a day with a viscid 

 half digested fluid that the workers disgorge into their mouths, which when 

 hungry they stretch out to meet those of their nurses. Add to which, 

 that in an old nest there are generally two distinct broods of different ages 

 requiring separate attention ; and that the observations of Huber make it 

 probable that at one period they require a more substantial food than at 

 another. It is true that the youngest brood at first want but little nutri- 

 ment ; but still, when we consider that they must not be neglected, that 

 the older brood demand incessant supplies, and in a well stocked nest 

 amount to 7000 or 8000, and that the task of satisfying all these cravings, 

 as well as providing for their own subsistence, falls to the lot of the work- 

 ing ants, we are almost ready to regard the burden as greater than can be 

 borne by such minute agents ; and we shall not wonder at the incessant 

 activity with which we see them foraging on every side. 



Their labor does not end here. It is necessary that the larvae should be 

 kept extremely clean ; and for this purpose the ants are perpetually passing 

 their tongue and mandibles over their body, rendering them by this means 

 perfectly white."^ After the young grubs have attained their full growth, 

 they surround themselves with a silken cocoon and become pupa, which, 



1 Gould, 37. 2 Huber, 74. » Ruber, 78. 



