80 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



ants ought to have been retiring to rest, yet all the 

 winged forms on which they bestow so much attention 

 lay scattered about in the grass. It was obvious that 

 the sexual forms had no intention of returning home 

 before dark. And this is in itself interesting, for the 

 workers in their daily labour retire each evening to 

 the nest ; but the males and females, not taking part 

 in the routine of work, felt no instinctive impulse 

 urging them to retire. When darkness fell they were 

 helpless. They had never been in the habit of return- 

 ing to the nest before dark ; they were therefore quite 

 unable to do so now, and were prepared to remain 

 outside for the night. 



But their protectors would have none of this. 

 Though in the sexual forms instinct failed, the workers 

 would meet the needs of the case. They were deter- 

 mined not to leave their precious care exposed, and 

 they soon solved the problem. They formed a line 

 between the tuft of grass and the nest ; workers 

 hurried out ; each seized a prospective parent in its 

 mandibles, clutching it by the back of the neck, and 

 carried it off to the nest. It was the males alone that 

 required transport. For the females example was 

 enough ; they seemed to possess a stronger instinct of 

 self-protection, for they found their own way back to 

 the nest. The males received very bad usage during 

 the process, yet they calmly resigned themselves to their 

 fate. The workers either dragged them roughly by 

 the neck over the stones, or pushed them forward with 

 such vehemence against sticks and slates and tufts of 

 grass that it seemed as though their heads would be 

 severed from their bodies. But they made no resist- 

 ance. They folded their wings against their sides, 



