NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



of a house, although without a following — makes for 

 herself a nest in a small cave in the ground or in a slight 

 hollow in a tree. Therein she lays several eggs, from 

 which a small brood of worker-ants is hatched, since the 

 needs of the formicary first require workers. The eggs 

 which produce males are not hatched until later. Wheth- 

 er, as in the case of bees, ants are able to develop queens 

 from ordinary worker larvae by special food and treat- 

 ment is not positively known, but is hardly probable. 

 Lord Avebury has shown that eggs are occasionally 

 dropped by workers, who are really undeveloped females, 

 and which always produce males. 



While the first brood is maturing, the queen attends 

 to all domestic duties. She is a fair type of the primi- 

 tive human princess. She cleans up the house; digs 

 out a new room for a nursery, if need be; washes and 

 cleanses with her tongue her infant progeny ; feeds them 

 in the way common among ants, by regurgitation, draw- 

 ing there for upon her own reserve of stored substance; 

 and, in short, nurses and nourishes them until they are 

 full-grown ants. 



Then they are set to work for themselves. Their first 

 duty is to assist in nursing their younger brothers and 

 sisters. They take to this without instruction and while 

 they are yet callow antlings. As they become a little 

 toughened and hardened, they are pushed out-of-doors 

 to help the queen mother gather food. By-and-by they 

 are strong enough to assist in house-building, and begin 

 digging out new galleries and rooms. Thus the work 

 goes on and enlarges as the colony grows. 



All this time the queen continues to lay eggs. There 

 is need for an immense number, for there is great loss of 

 life in an ordinary ant-hill. The daily exigencies of 



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