CHAPTEK XXVI 



INSECTA (continued) 



Order' VII. : HYMENOPTERA (continued) 



Family 6 : Ants (Formicidae), 



THE ordered lives of the communities of the 

 h ne y bee, an d other social bees, are wonderful 

 for their almost ceaseless, activity, for the mathe- 

 matical precision with which the brood-comb and honey- 

 comb are formed by the workers, for their industry in collect- 

 ing nectar for present and future use, for the strange and 

 utter absorption of the queen, the only mother in the hive, 

 in the work of egg-laying, and for the untiring care of the 

 young by the workers. In fact, we can only marvel at the 

 wonderful instincts which make up the " spirit of the hive," 

 and which have brought this communal life to so great a 

 degree of perfection. 



Nevertheless, the lives of these bees are limited in many 



directions. They have to spend much of their energy in 



constructing their combs of wax, their food is very restricted, 



and is not to be found in the winter, when they are 



dependent on their stores and to store sufficient food 



means hard work during the summer. In consequence their 



lives show little variation from the almost automatic round 



of cell-making, brood-rearing, and food-getting, and the lives 



of the workers are short as well as strenuous, rarely lasting for 



more than twelve months, and often for a much shorter time. 



Ants also live in large communities, but they 



have simplified to some extent the material side 



of their lives, their homes in the earth are far simpler, and 



VOL. I 401 2 D 



