35 
The significance of males in the ordinary life of the colony is 
very small, and I have but few notes on their habits and behavior. 
July 31 a worker, a male, and a pupa were placed together in a Petrie 
dish, the pupa almost mature. This is a situation of great responsi- 
bility for the worker ants, whose aid is necessary to the successful 
emergence of the adult, and the single worker upon whom these labors 
fell made every efifort to discharge her duties alone, the male doing 
nothing in her aid. The anxious and affectionate worker divided her 
attentions between the helpless pupa and this idle male, caressing and 
feeding him, and when, thru a misadventure, his wings were stuck to 
the cover of the cell in the moisture which collected there, doing her 
best to pull him loose. When the pupa was ready to yield the adult 
the end of the pupa-case was bitten off by the worker ant,- and its in- 
mate pulled out head first in a helpless condition, unable even to stand. 
In about three hours, however, it was walking about. 
When the workers were moving the family from one cell of the 
formicary to another, they were often seen dragging the males along 
to the new quarters, as if ants of this stupid sex were unable to get 
any idea of what was going on, and must be dealt with by physical 
force. 
The responsibility of the workers for the successful transforma- 
tion of the pupa and the appearance of the adult is well illustrated by 
an observation recorded by Mr. Kelly under date of August 17. In a 
glass Petrie dish in which three workers and three pupae of the corn- 
field ant had been placed for observation August 2, a worker emerged 
from a pupa-case, two of the workers in the cell assisting. One of 
these bit off the black tip of the pupa-case and slowly pulled the young 
ant out, taking three minutes for the operation. The head of the new- 
born worker was cleaned off and its antennas were straightened c«ut 
by the mouth-parts of one of its nurses, while the other loosened and 
straightened its legs. At the end of sixteen minutes from its release 
it made its first attempts to walk. In this, as in other cases observed, 
the workers rewarded themselves by devouring the empty pupa-case. 
The constant attention which the worker ants pay to their eggs 
and larvae is so well known that it scarcely requires illustration. Many 
of their ministrations, it is true, seem aimless and mechanical, mere 
restless movements of their charges from place to place, but the con- 
stant attention given by the workers to their young is an effective safe- 
guard against any ordinary injury. 
The eggs, deposited by the female, are gathered together by the 
workers, kept in a pile or ball convenient of transportation in a mass, 
and carried up and down in the nest according to the weather ; and as 
they hatch the young are separated from the mass of eggs and kept 
by themselves, usually assorted according to size as they increase in 
number and differ in age. Larvae and pupae are likewise commonly 
kept distinct, the various lots doubtless requiring somewhat different 
care. 
The workers feed their larvae almost constantly from the contents 
of their own stomachs, and often mouth and hover them, a mass of 
