58 OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



abdomen are much narrowed, so as to form what is 

 called a " petiole," because it seems as though the 

 abdomen were united to the thorax by a kind of stalk ; 

 in the other two families it is only the first joint that 

 is modified in this way. Microscopical examination 

 shows that our present insect has two lobes to the 

 petiole, therefore it belongs to the Myrmicidce. These 



two lobes are consider- 

 ab ^ ra i se d r swollen 

 above, so that, when 

 FIG. 22. Side view of body of same. , , , 



the insect is viewed 



in profile (Fig. 22), its contour presents a succession of 

 elevations and depressions. 



The head is very large, and the antennae are about 

 half as long as the whole body, elbowed at the base and 

 clubbed at the tip. Two black specks at the sides of the 

 head are the compound eyes, which for an insect are 

 unusually small in proportion to the size of the head. 

 The abdomen is smooth and shining, but the rest of the 

 insect is dull, in consequence of the minute and close 

 punctuation with which it is covered. 



The life history of an ant is similar to that of a bee. 

 It commences life as an egg, which is very minute, as 

 might be expected from the small size even of the 

 perfect insect. The oval, yellowish- white objects so 

 frequently found in ants' nests in the summer, and 

 popularly called "ants' eggs," are not eggs at all a 

 conclusion the truth of which a little thought would at 

 once render apparent, since they are as big as the insects 

 themselves, and therefore could not be their eggs. From 

 the eggs are hatched little footless maggots of a whitish 

 or greyish colour, which are tended and fed with great 

 assiduity by the patient workers. 



In due course they become pupae, in which condition 



