34 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



general opinion held by most of the eminent 

 naturalists who have made a special study of 

 these interesting insects, is that the Ants, like 

 the Bees, have the power to determine by the 

 selection and quantity of food given to the larva, 

 whether it shall develop into a worker or a 

 queen ; and that the probable explanation of the 

 partial fertility of some of the workers is 

 that they may, as larvae, have received, whether 

 accidentally or intentionally is uncertain, slightly 

 more than the usual worker-larvae's allowance 

 of food. 



The males and queens have wings, though the 

 queens lose theirs after the marriage-flight; 

 the workers are wingless. All pass through a 

 complete metamorphosis, the eggs, larvae, and 

 pupae being guarded and tended with the 

 greatest watchfulness by the workers. 



On a warm, still summer day, when hardly 

 a breath of air fans the foliage, it is a wonderful 

 sight to watch the winged males and young 

 queens quit the nest, and rise into the bright 

 sunlit air to depart on their marriage-flight. 

 They swarm out and rise in such dense numbers 

 as to appear like a thin column of smoke, iri- 

 descent gleams are shot forth ever and anon as 

 the sun strikes upon the countless gauzy wings. 

 Higher and higher the dancing column of insects 

 rises, until meeting a gentle current of air, they 

 disperse and are wafted away. The marriage- 

 flight over, the queens alight upon the ground 

 and strip off their wings, and once established 

 within a nest devote the rest of their lives to 

 their maternal duties ; and the males, their 



