44 HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



kind of stability to the edifice : it daily increases in size, 

 the ants taking care to leave the spaces required for the 

 galleries which lead to the exterior. The dome contains a 

 number of spacious chambers, excavated by the labourers 

 in the solid, compact substance of the edifice itself; but 

 though spacious, these chambers are low, irregular in figure, 

 and carelessly constructed, but convenient nevertheless for 

 the purpose for which they are intended, that of containing 

 the larvae and pupae at certain hours of the day. These 

 chambers communicate with each other by means of gal- 

 leries constructed in a similar manner. 



It is in these chambers that the eggs are first deposited 

 by the parent, and respecting the eggs a remarkable fact 

 has been observed ; on watching them from day to day, 

 after their being first laid by the female, they have been 

 found not only continually to vary in colour and form, but 

 to increase in size long before the emancipation of the 

 larva or grub from its shell, an event which takes place at 

 the end of fifteen days. On extrusion the body is perfectly 

 transparent, the head and abdominal segments alone being 

 visible ; the larvae have neither legs nor antennae, and are 

 solely dependant on the labourers for support. They are 

 most carefully protected by a number of labourers, who 

 stand around them as a body-guard, each having its body 

 bent and its sting protnided, ready for an instant attack on 

 any insect enemy that might perchance have found its way 

 into the interior of the nest. At the same time other la- 

 bourers, in the chambers but apparently not on duty, appear 

 to be spending the time of relaxation in sleep. 



Ants do not prepare for their larvae any particular kind 

 of food, as is the case with bees and some other insects, 

 but give them day by day whatever suitable food they meet 

 with in the course of their peregrinations. The larvae, al- 

 though apparently so helpless, are sufficiently knowing to 



