136 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



when babies, or they may hatch in late fall or early spring, 

 when food is scarce. 



ALBERT. I caught a queen, but none of the workers 

 missed her. She was so strong that she pulled one of her 

 wings off while I was looking at her wonderful shoulder 

 muscles. 



DOROTHY. Now she can't fly, and maybe blood poison 

 may set in. 



ALBERT. I saw her, or another like her, at work for 

 several days after the accident, and later found the body in 

 the rubbish heap. 



FLORENCE. Of course, the queen selects the first 

 home, but who selects the homes when ants move? 



ALBERT. The workers, of course. Since some ants 

 send out scouts to search for food, I don't see why scouts 

 couldn't select a place for a new home. 



FLORENCE. I can easily see the small eye in the cen- 

 ter of the forehead of one of our queens, but the two that 

 are a little higher up look more like scars to me. 



CECIL. Once I saw one of our queens that was lop- 

 sided and another one that had lost some of her wings 

 or else she never had the right number. I wish I had ex- 

 amined more closely. Maybe these were some of the 

 strange forms that certain ants have at times. 



FLORENCE. I know there may be many winged 

 queens in a nest at the same time, but they will fly away. 

 How about the number of wingless queens in a nest the 

 kind that have shed their wings and will not leave their 

 old home for new ones? 



CECIL. There may be as many as fifty of these. But 

 even if a colony should lose all their queens a worker 

 could lay eggs, and they might hatch, too. 



