ANT-NURSES. 85 



quickly set about to do. After basking there all 

 day long the nurses take care not to expose the 

 delicate constitutions of the larvae to the chill 

 evening air ; and soon as the sun begins to sink 

 towards the horizon they carefully take them up 

 and carry them to the warm deep cell below. 

 For fear, perhaps, of their taking cold, they never 

 allow them to be taken out in raw, damp, or frosty 

 weather. It must not be forgotten, however, that 

 these ants are not the parents of the larvce ; they 

 are only the nurses. 



But it becomes us now to pursue the more 

 immediate subject of these remarks, and ask the 

 reader's attention to a few particulars about the 

 larva. It is a great pity, for the sake of a clear per- 

 ception of the facts of insect history, that there is 

 a sad confusion of names in use among the majority 

 of persons in speaking of the different forms and 

 changes of insects. Who would imagine that 

 caterpillar, grub, maggot, and larva, signified one 

 and the same stage of the life of an insect? 

 This abuse of terms cannot but render the know- 

 ledge of any science less easily retained than it 

 would otherwise be, for the question is continually 

 arising in the mind If these all mean the same, 



