THE ROYAL MOTHER OF ANTS 



service among these little creatures are extremely severe. 

 All sorts of enemies Im-k in the way to devour them. 

 The feet of passing beasts and human beings crush 

 multitudes. 



These frequent losses have to be made up by the 

 fertility of the royal mother; and ere long it becomes 

 necessary for her to devote herself wholly to increasing 

 the colony. Foraging for supplies is abandoned. House- 

 hold work, domestic service, nursery duty, are gradually 

 given up, and the workers of the growing community 

 take those tasks upon themselves. The queen is re- 

 stricted to the function of motherhood. Therein lies her 

 supreme claim to sovereignty. 



This is a typical case of the course of founding an 

 ant community; although herein also nature asserts her 

 love of variation. In some cases, at least, especially in 

 large communities, the workers seize the fertilized young 

 queens and conduct them into the nest, where they are 

 adopted, assigned quarters, and add their quota to the 

 communal forces. 



The ant queen's subjection to her subjects is not 

 reached without resistance on the part of her emmet 

 majesty. But resistance is useless, and she becomes in 

 the end subject to the powerful house which she has 

 reared around her. She is confined closely to the interior 

 of the formicary, and wherever she goes, through cham- 

 bers and halls, is attended by a circle of workers known 

 as "courtiers" — a name that has a large and dignified 

 sound. But the courtiers are simply a body-guard ; and 

 their chief office is to restrain the liberty of their sover- 

 eign within the bounds prescribed by the communal 

 needs, and to look after the eggs when they are dropped. 

 Almost necessarily this phase of ant life must be observetl 



9 



