384 THE INSECT WORLD. 



they are obliged to gather each day the sugary hqiiids destined for 

 the food of the larvse. 



From their birth, a troop of nurses is charged with the care of 

 them. They put them out in the open air during the day. Hardly 

 has the sun risen, when the ants, placed just under the roof, go to 

 tell those which are beneath, by touching them with their antennae, 

 or shaking them with their mandibles. In a few seconds, all the 

 outlets are crowded with workers carrying out the larvae in order to 

 place them on the top of the ant-hill, that they may be exposed to 

 the beneficent heat of sun. When the larvae have remained some 

 time in the same place, their guardians move them away from the 

 direct action of the solar rays, and put them in chambers a little way 

 from the top of the hill, where a milder heat can still reach them. 

 We then see the ants themselves taking the well-earned luxury of a 

 few minutes' rest, heaping themselves up together, right in the sun. 

 There is no observant inhabitant of the country who has not seen the 

 curious spectacle which we have just mentioned — that is to say, the 

 population of an ants' nest carrying into the sun the young nurslings, 

 so that they may experience the action of the solar heat. We recom- 

 mend the dweller in towns who is in the country for a day to stretch 

 himself out near an ant-hill in the warm weather, and witness this 

 spectacle, one of the most curious in Nature. The care which the 

 working ants bestow on their young does not consist only in nourish- 

 ing them and procuring for them a proper temperature ; they have 

 also to keep them extremely clean. With their palpi they clean 

 them, brush them, distend their skin, and thus prepare them for the 

 critical trial of their metamorphosis. 



At this moment the larvae of ants, properly so called, spin them- 

 selves a silky cocoon, of a close tissue and of a grey or yellowish 

 colour ; those of the Myrmicas and of the Pone7-ce do not surround 

 themselves with a silky cocoon before changing into pupae. These 

 are at first of a pure white, but they very soon assume a brown colour, 

 which increases until it becomes dark brown. They possess all the 

 organs of the adult, enveloped in a membrane so thin that it seems 

 to be iridescent. Fig. 366 represents the pupa of the red ant. They 

 are the cocoons enclosing the pupae, which are incorrectly called 

 in the country ants' eggs, and are given to young pheasants and 

 partridges. The pupae remain motionless till the insects emerge, 

 which is accomplished with the assistance of the workers. These 

 latter tear the covering from the pupa, and complete its deliver- 

 ance. They then watch over the newly-born ant. For some days 

 they feed it, help it to walk, and do not abandon it till it can dis- 



