ANTS AND WASPS 



57 



very short one. The females, previous to undertaking 

 the duties of maternity, lose their wings, which either 

 drop off spontaneously, or are torn off by the workers. 

 Winged ants, therefore, are only to be seen at certain 

 seasons of the year : and the majority of the wingless 

 creatures that we commonly speak of as ants, and that 

 are so frequently seen running about on the ground, are 

 merely the workers. 



So much with respect to ants in general. We may 

 now proceed to the study of the particular species above 

 referred to, viz., Monomorium 

 Pharaonis (Fig. 21). It is a 

 minute reddish insect, which, 

 though apparently not yet 

 distributed throughout the 

 country, being most plentiful 

 in the south-east, is never- 

 theless very abundant where 

 it occurs, and therefore, in 

 consequence of its voracious 

 habits, a source of consider- 

 able annoyance. 



The worker, the only mem- 

 ber of the community usually 

 seen, is reddish -yellow in 

 colour, and is very minute, 

 being scarcely one-twelfth inch FIG. 21. Worker of Monomorium 



i ,1 j e , v Pharaonis. 



in length, and so one or the 



smallest of our British ants. There is a peculiarity in 

 the abdomen of this little creature, which at once reveals 

 the family to which it belongs. British ants are divisible 

 into three families the Formiddce, the Poneridce, and 

 the Myrmicidce. The last is readily distinguished from 

 the other two by the fact that the first two joints of the 



