HYMEXOPTERA. ACULEATA. 193 



suitable chambers, moistening them, it is said, from their 

 own mouths, and thus probably affording that nourish- 

 ment which must be essential to their growth ; the eggs 

 of Ants, like those of Sawflies, growing larger after they 

 are laid. According to the observations of M. Hubner, 

 the nurses then bestow the most assiduous attention 

 upon the eggs, daily removing them to those parts of the 

 nest of which the temperature is most suitable. In the 

 morning the eggs are carried to the upper chambers, to 

 be within the influence of the sun's rays, while in the 

 evening they are transferred to the lower apartments, 

 which are less susceptible to a sudden lowering of the 

 temperature. The eggs hatched, yet further labours 

 devolve upon the careful and busy nurses, who to the 

 daily removal of their little charges (creatures which 

 before long are equal to themselves in size) now add the 

 task of supplying them with food ; or, rather, of feeding 

 them. Nor does their care end here : when the time for 

 its perfection arrives, the larva, having spun its own co- 

 coon (the only act which it has ever been allowed to per- 

 form for itself), is not only extricated by the workers from 

 its silken shroud, but even receives their assistance iii 

 divesting itself of the delicate membrane which still has 

 to be stripped from its body.* 



It has been said that the community consists primarily 

 of the females and the workers, but this is not all. The 



* That all this care is not absolutely necessary has been proved by the 

 experiments of Mr. F. Smith, who found that the young ants, deprived of 

 the assistance of their nurses, were able, in some cases, to emerge without 

 help from their pupa-cases. Mr. Smith observes that the pupae are not 

 always enclosed in silken cocoons, the naked pupse always giving out neuter 

 insects. He accounts for this on the supposition that the under-fed 

 female larvse which were to be imperfectly developed into neuters, were not 

 sufficiently nourished to produce the silk. 



O 



