ANT QUEENS 



tree. They were enclosed in small cavities about an 

 inch in diameter, Avithin which the queens had sealed 

 themselves by closing up the original opening, and from 

 which, as a nucleus, they must have cut out their resi- 

 dent-room and nursery. When they sallied forth to 

 obtain food, as they may have done (for I have often 

 observed queens wandering solitary), they must have 

 removed the plug, or "door," and restored it upon re- 

 entrance. However, it is quite within the bounds of 

 probability that a well-fed queen can live without addi- 

 tional food for a number of days after setting up house- 

 keeping, and this is doubtless the usual course. 



In these nesting cavities were found the white, oval, 

 or cylindrical eggs of the species; larvae of various sizes, 

 from those just out of the egg, 2.3 millimetres long, 

 to full-grown, about 10 millimetres; cocoons or enclosed 

 pupaB; and in one case a callow antling, which was of 

 the dwarf caste, as all the larvae and cocoons also ap- 

 peared to be. There are three castes in a formicary 

 of Camponotus, the worker -major, the worker -minor, 

 and the minim, or dwarf. We may infer that the lat- 

 ter caste is the one which is first produced in rearing a 

 family. 



It has been conjectured that the imperfect nurture 

 given to larvae, under the above circumstances, might 

 accomit for the appearance of small workers first in 

 order. Whatever may have been the fact in the remote 

 origin of these castes among ants, it is certain that when 

 the formicary has been fully peopled with workers, and 

 the food supply is unlimited, the severa' castes continue 

 to appear. Mmims, minors, and majors, not only 

 abomid among the mature insects, but are found among 

 the larvse and cocoons. These distinctions are a perma- 



33 



