298 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



terra firma, than they renounce, as it were, the pleasures 

 of life to devote themselves entirely to the work of re- 

 production. And as if to make all regrets vain, to stamp 

 out all possible temptation to desert their vows, they tear 

 off their gauzy wings, and with them goes all hope of 

 fertile repentance : for the rest of this life their home 

 is underground. 



Each queen, on her descent, departs a separate way, 

 and hard is the road before her. She left the parental 

 nest well-fed, and in good liking, her body weU stored 

 with food in the shape of fat and the now useless, bulky, 

 wing-muscles, and with this, her only dowry, she starts 

 the formation of a new colony out of her own substance. 

 Her first task is to form a burrow, and at the end of this 

 she fashions a small chamber. This done, she closes the 

 mouth of the burrow and cuts herself off from the world. 

 The labour of this burrowing is so severe that it often 

 wears away her teeth, her only tools, and the hairs from 

 her body. In this retreat she now waits patiently for 

 the eggs within her to ripen, which may take months to 

 accomplish : she is still fasting, or, rather, feeding upon 

 herself. When at last the eggs are laid and hatched, she 

 feeds her children on saliva, the very juice of her body, 

 for she is still fasting. Nor is the strain relaxed till the 

 larvae undergo their transformation into pupae, and, after 

 a brief sleep, emerge as "worker" Ants, puny in stature 

 owing to the poorness of their food during larval Hfe. 

 In some species this fast may last for ten long months. 

 So soon, however, as these little workers emerge, like 

 dutiful daughters they make their way to the outer 

 world, and go forth in search of food, which they share 

 with their now exhausted mother. But, besides, they 

 enlarge the original chamber, and drive galleries in all 



