132 FECUNDATION OF ANTS. 
from the moment of their fecundation, 
and are conducted into the interior of 
the nest, commence by being entirely 
dependent upon the workers. The lat- 
ter, hanging to each of their legs, guard 
them with assiduity, and never permit 
them to go out. They nourish them with 
the greatest care, and conduct them into 
quarters whose temperature appears the 
best adapted to them; but they do not 
abandon them an instant. Each of these 
females loses, by degrees, the desire of 
quitting her abode. Her abdomen in- 
creases in size: at this period, she no 
longer experiences constraint. She has 
still a constant guard; a single ant ac- 
companies her every where, and provides 
for her necessities. ‘The greater part of 
the time the worker rests upon its abdo- 
men, with its posterior legs stretched out 
upon the ground. It appears to be a 
sentinel stationed to survey the female’s 
actions, and to seize the first moment 
when she begins to lay, to carry off, the 
eggs. It is not always the same ant 
