130 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



Queens. 



DOROTHY. You say the queen loses her wings after 

 her first and only flight. How does she get them off? 



ANT. Pulls them off with her legs and jaws, or rubs 

 them off against something. 



DOROTHY. After her wings are off then what? 



ANT. Let Kenneth read. 



KENNETH. "Before taking flight, the queen has eaten 

 much and stored away enough food to last her many, many 

 days or even months. She generally lights, removes her 

 wings, walks off alone, digs a hole in the ground or under 

 something, enlarges the inner end of the hole a little for 

 her small house, and then shuts the door up tight." 



CECIL. She mines her house all alone. Often she wears 

 out her jaws, rubs off her hairs, scratches her polished 

 body, and is a sorry sight the rest of her life, the books 

 say. 



DOROTHY. That's interesting, if not beautiful. 



KENNETH. I'm not done yet. "In that little house, 

 all alone, with door tightly closed and no food to eat, she 

 passes weeks or months before she lays her eggs. Then 

 she has the care of the eggs until they are hatched and of 

 the babies, with no food for herself or children until they 

 are grown up, except what was stored in her body." Busy! 

 I should say she is. 



FLORENCE. That's worse than hoeing beans. 



ANT. Sometimes it is ten months after she leaves the 

 old home before the children in the new one have grown 

 up and are ready to help her and to help themselves. The 

 Carpenter and nearly all northern ants follow this method 

 of starting a new home. 



CECIL. As this queen will never have to start another 



