1902-1903.] Ants in Relatioti to Flowers. 13 



nuptial flight takes place only once in the life of an Ant, and 

 so these appendages are no longer required. If she has chosen 

 to have a home of her own, the widowed Queen, soon after 

 her arrival, sets to work to prepare, in a small way at first, for 

 the expected family. Most of the autumn is supposed to pass 

 thus. With the advent of winter the Queen Ant, still all 

 alone, is supposed to remain in a dormant state, from which 

 she does not arouse until the advent of the warm weather of 

 the year following. Some time in April she lays her first 

 egg, and she continues to lay, at short intervals, for a period 

 of considerable length, which may extend to several years. 

 The larvse are hatched about a month later, and about another 

 month is passed in the condition of pupse. Normally (and 

 perhaps invariably) the direct offspring of the Queen Ant are 

 Workers, and not Males. How young Queen Ants arise does 

 not yet seem to be known. As regards the Males we are also 

 at a loss for information. Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock) 

 states that in captivity his Workers occasionally laid eggs, and 

 that these, when hatched, gave rise to Males. I have else- 

 where suggested ^ that all Male Ants may be thus partheno- 

 genetically produced. Whether this will prove to be the case 

 remains to be seen. But about the physiological interest of 

 the observed facts there cannot be any doubt. 



I will not stop here to consider the successive stages in the 

 gradual evolution of the new colony ; nor liow the Queen Ant 

 manages to train up the elder children in the management of 

 the rest of the growing family ; nor how she educates them in 

 their earlier days. Much has been written already upon this 

 by others who have had much more extensive opportunities of 

 studying the facts at first hand than I have. But instead of 

 taking up space unnecessarily, I will at once pass on to the 

 consideration of some points in the habits and mental disposi- 

 tion of Ants which bear more directly upon the subject chosen 

 for this Address. 



Ants are undoubtedly very remarkable creatures in regard 

 to their sagacity. This is certainly true even after due allow- 

 ance has been made for some exaggerated statements that 

 have been made regarding them. Whether any of this 

 sagacity can be properly referred to what we commonly 



1 Trans. Scottish Nat. Hist. Soc, vol. for 1902. 



