392 



AN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



let us have their general life history. In a colony of ants, how- 

 ever large, there is usually a single "queen," or female, the 



nominal head of the estab- 

 lishment, and she attends to 

 the business of laying the 

 eggs, which are white, cylin- 

 drical, and a little elongated. 

 They are taken in charge by 

 the workers, cared for, and 

 in about a nwnth — the time 

 varying with the species — 

 helpless grubs are produced. 

 These are carefully tended 

 and fed, because absolutely 

 unable to help themselves, 

 are periodically cleaned and 

 moved about from place to 

 place in the nest, that they 

 may have the proper degree 

 of warmth and dryness or 

 moisture, and after about six 

 weeks of this coddling they 

 are full grown. Then they 

 either spin an oval cocoon, 

 in which they change to 

 pupae, or change directly 

 without forming such a cov- 

 ering. The cocoons are cared 

 for as tenderly as were the 

 larvae themselves, and these 

 are what is usually known as 

 " ants' eggs." They may be 

 found at midsummer, or thereafter, in almost any colony of ants, 

 and usually in the upper chambers of the nest, where they get a 

 full supply of warmth from the sun. The adults hatch from these 

 cocoons late in summer, and at once take part in the work of the 

 nest, so far as they are workers. Of the latter there may be 

 two *brms, known as "worker minors," or small workers, and 

 " worker majors," or large workers, each with different duties. 



Creviastogastcf Imi'olata. — a, b, large 

 worker ; c, its head ; ci, female ; <?, its wing ; 

 /, small worker. Family Formicidcv . 



