QUEENS 135 



and queens of the same kind of ants are likely to swarm 

 on the same day even at the same hour. 



CECIL. We didn't catch our kings and queens swarm- 

 ing this time, if they did so, but we saw several leave 

 home on foot, and not on the same day, either. It took 

 this colony of Acrobats two days to get done swarming. 



DOROTHY. I see a lot of kings and queens all around 

 here on the ground. I suppose they have swarmed. 



CECIL. One day I saw thirty of our ants elbow two of 

 our queens back into the nest. Swarming time hadn't 

 come yet. The workers seem to set the time for swarming. 



ALBERT. Is it true that history names dates when 

 there were clouds of kings and queens in the sky? 



CECIL. Yes. 



KENNETH. I read that sometimes the queens of cer- 

 tain ants will enter the homes of other kinds, kill all of 

 them, take charge of the babies, and thus have a new- 

 colony of workers and servants or slaves, without bother- 

 ing to build new homes and without the danger of a starv- 

 ing time. 



ALBERT. When their own children grow up and the 

 captured ones die off, the newcomers will have colonies of 

 their own kind only. 



FLORENCE. Why did you carry a pupa queen out 

 today the one that hadn't unfolded her wings yet? 



ANT. Because there was something the matter with her. 



DOROTHY. You must have pretty smart nurses to be 

 able to make either workers or real queens out of babies, 

 just as they please. I suppose a difference in food and 

 care does the business. 



ALBERT. Some say that small workers may come 

 from the first eggs of a queen and so may be half -starved 



