12 Ants in Relation to Flowers. [Sess. 



then to inject the formic acid into the wound, which they 

 do by flexing the abdomen and thence squirting the irritant 

 acid. It will be observed that in this respect the Ants 

 are far behind the Wasps and Bees, which are provided 

 with a much more effective means of offence, and are able to 

 carry out their intention not only in less time, but by a much 

 neater and, so to speak, much more scientific method. Those 

 persons who have not realised what effects formic acid can 

 produce upon a wound, might take an early opportunity of 

 holding a pricked or cut finger for a minute close above a 

 colony of Ants whose nest has been disturbed a few minutes 

 before. Formic acid produces irritant effects of some import- 

 ance also in relation to vegetable growth, as will be seen 

 further on. 



So far as the morphology of Ants is concerned in the 

 present connection, the only other feature that calls for notice 

 is the fact that the terminal parts of their limbs consist of 

 acutely-pointed and forked claws, which are sufficiently sharp 

 to penetrate a little way into a delicate skin when an Ant is 

 crawling over us. This fact also is of importance in the 

 present connection. 



A few words about the life-history of Ants may be given 

 here. As in the case of Bees, a community of Ants consists 

 of at least three different forms: (1) The Queen Ant, who is 

 the mother of all the workers ; (2) the Male Ants, corres- 

 ponding to the Drones in a beehive ; and (3) the Worker, or 

 so-called Neuters, which are morphologically females. The 

 two former are provided with wings, while the Workers are 

 wingless. Some bright sunshiny day soon after midsummer 

 the young Queen Ants and the Males sally forth from the 

 aut-nest into the open air and spend the day on the wing in 

 the nuptial flight. Towards evening most, or all, of the Males 

 have lost their lives or have been devoured by insectivorous 

 animals of many kinds. The number of the young Queen Ants, 

 too, has been seriously thinned. But those who survive wing 

 their way to some home — either to that which they had left in 

 the forenoon, or, more usually, to a site chosen as that of a new 

 colony. Arrived there, the first act of the Queen is to double 

 herself back upon her wings and so break them off, as the 



