78 GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



nests. Fig. 46 represents the work of one species, the leaf- 

 cutter bee (Megachi'le acu'ta), which makes long tunnels in 

 wood or in the ground. The eggs are laid singly on a paste 

 of nectar and pollen, which is placed carefully in a leaf-lined 

 cell and covered with a circular lid. Several such cells are 

 generally to be found in one nest. 



Ants. Ants have long been considered models of industry. 

 In many respects some of the features of their life-history 

 are the most remarkable of anything in the insect-world. So 

 specialized have the members of the community become in 

 some cases that there are not only males and females, but 

 large and small workers (workers major and minor), and 

 soldiers for the defense of the colony. Ants build nests in 

 the ground, piling up the material taken out for their bur- 

 rows in the characteristic ant-hills ; or they make tunnels 

 in wood. Some inhabit the interior of thorns or the hollow 

 stems of grasses ; others live on certain trees, from which 

 they obtain all their food, forming a kind of body-guard by 

 defending the tree from the attacks of various enemies. The 

 food of ants is both animal and vegetable, the former consist- 

 ing of other insects, the latter of plant fluids. They are also 

 extremely fond of the sweet substance called " honeydew," 

 furnished by the aphids and some few other insects. 



The eggs are, of course, extremely minute, and hatch into 

 footless larvao, which resemble those of the bees and wasps. 

 The workers take great care of the young, feeding them 

 and moving them about in conformity with changes in tem- 

 perature and amount of moisture. Among ants generally, 

 the workers feed not only the young but even give up food 

 to each other, when this is demanded by a stroke of the an- 

 tennae. The pupal stage is generally passed in silken cocoons. 

 These are the so-called " ant-eggs," which are the objects of 

 much solicitude when a nest is exposed. The imagoes are 

 unable to escape from the pupal case without the help of the 



