14^ LIFE STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN INSECT^. 



tibial comb, but the one on each of the middle and 

 hind legs was much more elongate and with coarser 

 teeth. On each of the front legs of the worker of 

 Camponotus nigriceps is a very beautiful comb 

 (Plate 20, Figs. 5 and 6 a. and b.). 



We see that the workers are the mainstay of the 

 nest. They nurse, clean, build, carry, forage and 

 fight. In some species of ants the workers are 

 known to carry up the broods to give them an airing 

 on very hot summer nights. In other species it 

 is recorded that some of the workers have a curious 

 habit of going out to meet the home-coming fora- 

 gers who are late and seem tired or stranded, and 

 they lift them bodily and carry them home, and 

 the comrade who is being carried seems quite con- 

 tent and does not struggle. 



Ants do not often change their nests, for they 

 may occupy the same abode during the lifetime of 

 a man. The life of the individual ant, too, is longer 

 than that of an individual of bees and wasps. A 

 worker lives from four to eight years, and a queen 

 from thirteen to fourteen years. 



When a change of nest is made, it is • 

 the workers who do the work. They remove eggs, 

 larvse, pupae, queens and males, bodily to the new' 

 abode, and it is said that should some of the workers 

 object to go to the new nest, or wander back to the 

 eld one, they are carried bodily to the new home. 

 To show 'the general intelligence of the ant, the 

 following is taken from *'The Study of Insects," 

 by J. H. and A. B. Comstock : "They have a lang- 

 uage which seems to exist throuoh the sense of 



