LECT. in.] METAMORPHOSES. 69 



is carried on in the dark. Again, ants are essentially 

 gregarious ; it is in some cases difficult to keep a few 

 alive by themselves in captivity, and at any rate their 

 habits under such circumstances are entirely altered. If, 

 on the other hand, a whole community be kept, then the 

 great number introduces a fresh element of difficulty 

 and complexity. Moreover, within the same species, 

 the individuals seem to differ in character, and even the 

 same individual will behave very differently, under dif- 

 ferent circumstances. Although, then, ants have attracted 

 the attention of many naturalists, as Gould, De Geer, 

 Swammerdam. Latreille, Leuwenhoeck, and Huber, and 

 have recently been the object of interesting observa- 

 tions by Frederick Smith, Belt, Moggridge, Bates, 

 Mayr, Emery, Forel, and others, they still present one of 

 the most promising fields for observation and experiment. 

 The larvae of ants, like those of bees and wasps, 

 are small, white, legless grubs, somewhat conical in 

 form, narrow towards the head. They are carefully 

 tended and fed, being carried about from chamber to 

 chamber by the workers, probably in order to secure the 

 most suitable amount of warmth and moisture. I have 

 observed also that they are very often sorted accord- 

 ing to age. It is sometimes very curious in my nests 

 to see the larvas arranged in groups according to size, 

 so that they remind one of a school divided into five or 

 six classes. When full grown, they turn into pupse, 

 sometimes naked, sometimes covered with a silken 

 cocoon, constituting the so-called " ant- eggs." After re- 

 maining some days in this state, they emerge as perfect 

 insects. In many cases, however, they would perish in 

 the attempt, if they were not assisted ; and it is very 

 pretty to see the older ants helping them to extricate them- 



