HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 251 



complete embryonic development, for eggs deposited by the 

 queens and kept for experiment away from the workers 

 have only partially developed and never hatched. The 

 queens are, in short, nothing more nor less than living egg- 

 producing machines, paying no attention whatever to the 

 eggs when once they are laid. Not so, however, the 

 workers, for several are always in attendance on the queen 

 when she is about to oviposit, apparently anxiously awaiting 

 the advent of the eggs, and immediately one is deposited, 

 often before it has even touched the floor, it is laid hold 

 of by the worker and rushed off to the nearest " egg pile." 

 Although the queens oviposit throughout the year, the 

 majority of eggs are produced in the summer. The exact 

 number of eggs laid by each queen has not been determined, 

 but one queen was observed to deposit eggs at the rate 

 of thirty a day over a considerable period. 



After about twenty-eight days, though the time may 

 vary from twelve to fifty-five days, the larvae appear, and, 

 at first, a magnifying glass is necessary to distinguish 

 them from the eggs. The larvae, which in their initial 

 stages are at first much curved, though they straighten out 

 as they grow older, are practically incapable of movement 

 and therefore quite helpless, relying altogether on the 

 ministrations of the attendant workers. Their reliance is 

 not misplaced, for the workers perform their duties faith- 

 fully, feeding and grooming their charges continually, and 

 transporting them from one place to another whenever the 

 need arises. In times of danger, the first instinct of the 

 worker appears to be to remove the larvae to a place of 

 safety, and they will readily sacrifice their own lives to 

 save their young. The larvae feed upon the regurgitated, 

 and probably predigested, food of some of the workers, 

 which do not appear, either structurally or by their actions, 

 to be in any way different from the workers which do not 

 carry out the duty of nurses. 



The feeding of the larvae by the workers is interesting, 



