118 CALIFORNIA STATE COMMISSION OF IIORTFCULTURE. 



of thousands which start forth, vast numbers of them perish, falling a 

 prey to birds and other causes. There is much that is fascinating in 

 the life of an ant, and these insects have been a great favorite with 

 entomological students even from the time of Solomon, as is indicated 

 by his advice: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and 

 be wise." Many books have been written of them, and when we con- 

 sider their intelligence and that in many respects they resemble man, 

 it is not strange that we should be interested in them. We find among 

 them a perfect system of government; also a highly specialized 

 division of labor, many of our trades being represented, such as archi- 

 tects, builders, agriculturists, tailors, masons, and many other trades 

 corresponding to those followed by man. The rare intelligence exhib- 

 ited by ants in attending to and caring for their young is astonishing. 

 They watch the eggs and larvte night and day, and remove them from 

 place to place, as they require more or less light, warmth, and moisture. 

 When an ants' nest is disturbed the workers first of all secure the 

 young and take them to a place of safety, this instinct being even 

 greater than that of self-preservation, for they will risk the greatest 

 dangers and their own lives for the eggs and cocoons of the young 

 insects. That they are able to communicate and transmit intelligence 

 is evident, too, and this is done by means of their antenna?. They 

 play like children when they have leisure, and have so many striking 

 peculiarities that there is a charm in them for those who are not inter- 

 ested in entomology. 



They have, however, little economic importance, for, except inci- 

 dentally, they are neither hurtful nor beneficial. If anything rather 

 the former, as, in their efforts to get the exudation of honey-dew from 

 aphids and scale-bugs, they often spread these insects into new loca- 

 tions, and they sometimes prey upon the soft larvae of some of the lady- 

 birds, and thus keep down our beneficial insects. The small red ant 

 found in the house becomes a pest by reason of its enormous numbers, 

 which increase in the summer. This is essentially a domestic species, 

 having its nests in the walls and floors of our houses. It is sometimes 

 very difficult to trace it, but usually by careful watching the location of 

 the nest can be found, when it may be driven out by the application of 

 coal oil to the runways. 



Superfamil}^ Sphecina. (Digger-wasps.) 



The next superfamily is the Sphecina, and is composed of the solitary 

 wasps, the digger-wasps, or Fo.ssores. This name is given to them from 

 the fact that each female makes a nest for herself, usually by bur- 

 rowing in the ground or boring into wood. Some, as the so-called mud- 

 daubers, construct tubes, while others use any suitable tunnels they 

 can find, or even utilize the hollow stems of plants, in which to deposit 



