26 BRITISH ANTS. 



lobes, which have been compared with those of the vertebrates, 

 contain a large number of round bodies, the glomeruli. The pedun- 

 culate bodies are often largest in the worker and least developed in 

 the male, and this has been supposed to show that the former was 

 the most, and the latter the least intelligent of the three sexes. 

 Wheeler, however, has shown that the pedunculate bodies may be 

 as highly developed in the female as in the worker, and by no means 

 vestigial in the male, and in any case it is very doubtful if the 

 female is less intelligent than the worker. 



Many sense organs tactile, olfactory, and gustatory sensillae, 

 chordotonal organs (first discovered by Lubbock in the fore tibiae 

 and subsequently by Janet in other parts of the body, and 

 supposed to be auditory in function), Johnstonian organs, etc. 

 have been carefully studied and described, but they are far too 

 complicated to be treated within the limits of this work. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



Propagation. The mating of the male and female ant is known 

 as the marriage flight, and is one of the chief events in the lives of 

 these insects. The time of the year, as well as the time of the day, 

 in which it occurs, varies considerably with the different species. 

 Among our British ants the nuptial flight may take place, according 

 to the species, at any date from May to October, and at any hour 

 from very early morning to midnight. 



These flights often occur at many points in a large area on the 

 same date, and a number of different species are affected at the 

 same time. The workers are much excited, they direct the opera- 

 tion ; preventing the males and females from leaving the nest 

 until the appointed time, and it is evident that meteorological 

 conditions influence them in this matter. 



When both the male and female are winged they fly off into the - 

 air, and with those species in which the former is considerably 

 smaller than the latter, copulation takes place on the wing. When 

 however the sexes are of the same size, they either join in the air 

 and fall to the ground, or the male seeks the female on the ground, 

 on trees, bushes, etc., or even in, or on, the nest. When one of 

 the sexes is wingless (no ants are known in which both male and 

 female are wingless, and in Britain no species occurs in which the 

 female is apterous) a " marriage flight " in the strict sense of the 

 word cannot of course take place, but a similar period of excitement 

 is present, and copulation between brother and sister (adelpho- 

 gamy) in or on the nest, is the rule. 



I have, as far as possible, given under each of our species an 

 account of the method of and time for the marriage flight and the 

 appearance of the winged sexes, etc. 



After the marriage flight the males do not necessarily die at 



