LIFE HISTORY. 29 



of a virgin female has the same effect upon her as the loss of the 

 wings to a fertile one. 



It is a remarkable fact that an old queen will, if removed from 

 her nest, again carry out all the labours necessary for the starting 

 of a new colony ; although she may have lived .an uneventful 

 life for years, being fed and cleaned by her workers, and doing 

 little except lay eggs. Thus an old female belonging to Group I, 

 will under these circumstances excavate a new cell, lay eggs, and 

 bring up a fresh brood ; and one belonging to Group II, if intro- 

 duced into a nest of the host species, will act in the same manner as 

 a young fertile female. 



I shall describe, at some length, under each species the colony 

 founding of all the British ants. 



Metamorphosis. The female ant when laying lowers her head 

 and raises her gaster ; shortly an egg appears, which is quickly 

 extruded, but remains for some time at the tip of the abdomen 

 until she deposits it on the ground. The workers at once pick up 

 the eggs and collect them in a heap, sometimes even they remove 

 them from the body of the female, drawing them out as they 

 appear. They constantly lick and caress with their antennae 

 the queen's gaster when she is laying. In some cases the queens 

 lay eggs on the march and these are at once picked up by the 

 workers. 



Young queens (and also workers which lay) will remove their 

 own eggs, bending the gaster forward between their legs, and 

 pulling out the ovum with their mandibles. 



The eggs of ants are quite small, even those of the largest species, 

 in proportion to their size. They are white, or yellow in colour, 

 varying in shape in different species, being round, elliptical, or 

 elongate, and consist of a delicate shell or chorion enclosing a thin 

 liquid yolk. 



Ants' eggs are said to grow after they have been laid ; this has 

 not been proved by measurements, but from observations in arti- 

 ficial nests it appears to be the case ; moreover the ants are con- 

 stantly licking them and covering them with a coating of saliva, 

 which probably assists in this process. 



This salivary coating causes the eggs to adhere together in larger, 

 or smaller, packets, which enables them to be more easily carried 

 about. The coating probably also contains some antiseptic pro- 

 perties against fungoid growths I have noticed in observation 

 nests that neglected eggs have quickly gone mouldy. 



The workers and young queens, and in some cases the old queens 

 as well, continually move and carry about the egg-packets. Many 

 species arrange the eggs, larvae, and pupae, in groups according 

 to their age and condition, as the different stages require different 

 degrees of moisture and temperature. 



Eggs are laid by the young females of some species almost im- 



