202 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



nest is opened early in the spring-time, no winged insects will be 

 found, but a multitude of workers, and a few females, which have 

 lost their wings ; they are readily distinguishable, however, by 

 their thick thorax and colour. All the female ants are born with 

 wings, and very shortly afterwards they leave home, and fly off 

 with a number of males, but they soon settle down to be careful 

 and steady housekeepers ; for whether they stray back to their 

 old nest, or whether they come near to others, they begin to tear 

 off their wings, and should any workers be in the neighbourhood 

 they assist them in completing this extraordinary operation. 

 Nature does not care to perpetuate useless structures, and they 

 generally drop off, or become smaller, but in this instance the 



THE LARVA, NYMPH, AND COCOON OF THE RED ANT. 



A larva magnified and of the natural size, seen sideways and from above. The nymph 

 seen from below, actual size and magnified. The cocoon of the nymph enlarged, 

 and of the natural size. 



ants appear to know that the wings are about to be useless to 

 them, for the females will live a perfectly sedentary life for the 

 future, consequently they act instead of Nature, and destroy their 

 useless organs of flight. The wnngs of the female ants have 

 nervures which are more or less divided close to their origin, so 

 that they can be cut through very easily, and without the insect 

 suffering any pain. The females begin to lay during the first fine 

 days of the year, and their white and very tiny eggs increase 

 sensibly in size until the larvJE escape from them. The workers 

 take wonderful care of the eggs ; they place them in special 

 chambers, and appear every now and then to lick them, and they 

 carry them alternately to the upper and lower stories of the nest, 

 and manage so that they are never exposed to too great a heat, 

 and that they are kept in a uniform temperature. When the 



