EGGS, &c. OF ANTS. 89 
The labourers we have seen in charge 
of the larvee and pupe evince the same so- 
cocoon; but he does not know if there are any 
that undergo their metamorphosis without spinning, 
or if the workers tear off their enveloping mem- 
brane ; however he leans to this latter opinion. [ 
have often made the same remark. I have even 
confirmed the conjecture he had advanced, and 
often seen the ash-coloured labourers opening the 
cocoon of the pupe, a short period after their trans- 
formation. The Mining Ants act the same: but for 
what purpose do they hasten to liberate them, and 
of what advantage is it to the larve to spin, if the 
workers so soon destroy the tissue they have woven? 
It cannot be for the sake of unfolding their mem- 
bers from the last envelope in the state of pupa, for 
the ants do not render them this service until they 
are capable of motion, and have acquired their full 
strength: they even know the precise moment when 
to remove them. Are not these cocoons of essen- 
tial service to the larve at the time of passing to the 
state of pupe ? I have frequently drawn from their 
cocoons, larve which had just spun, and which were 
not yet metamorphosed: some days after, they 
began rejecting their larva-skin, but could not dis- 
engage their limbs, which, with the abdomen, re- 
mained attached to it. The ants offered them no 
assistance. These pupe were never well developed, 
and they soon perished. It appears that these 
cocoons offered thera a point of support, enabling 
them to free themselves from the skin which they 
are under the necessity of rejecting. It will be ob- 
jected, perhaps, that the larve of several species 
