254 ] The Wonderful Ways of Insects and Spiders 



a nest successfully, you have to dig down with great skill else 

 you may merely ruin it. 



Inside the Ant Colony: Observe the nests of cornfield ants closely 

 and you will realize that these nests vary greatly in size. The 

 mound of a long-established colony covers a much larger area 

 than that of a new one. As a rule, the underground rooms are 

 only a few inches below the surface. But after a long dry spell, 

 or if the nest is located in sandy soil, the rooms are deeper in the 

 earth; for soil that is very dry becomes too crumbly for excavation. 

 In the winter you would find the apartments occupied only by 

 inactive adults and larvae. In midsummer the rooms bulge with 

 eggs, larvae, pupae, workers, males and females. (The eggs are 

 tiny specks.) The larvae are white maggot-like creatures, and the 

 pupae are enclosed in whitish cocoons about an eighth of an inch 

 long. Often mistakenly called "ant eggs," the pupae are collected 

 in large numbers and sold as fish and bird food. 



How Ant Life is Organized: If you were to discover an ant nest 

 on a fine afternoon in August or early September, you might 

 find the occupants swarming excitedly about the entrance; you 

 might also notice that many of them have wings. Every few 

 minutes a winged form takes to the air. Some of these are males, 

 some females. (Apparently their mating takes place in the air.) 



When the female returns to the ground she breaks off her wings, 

 then burrows a few inches into the earth or finds an opening 

 beneath a log or stone. Here she forms a small cell. She may then 

 immediately start to lay her eggs or she may wait until the follow- 

 ing spring. As time goes on she eats some of the eggs they are the 

 only food she has and continues to lay more. About two months 

 after she begins to raise her young she may have one or two 

 workers. 



During the first year, if she does well, her colony increases to 

 about twenty-five adult workers. Their duty is to search far and 

 wide for her food. They feed her and the larvae as well, also 

 helping the larvae to spin their cocoons and in time assisting the 

 new adults as they escape from these cocoons. Their mandibles 

 and forelegs make excellent tools. With these, too, they dig out 



