74 ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. [LECT. 



containing larvae, and in this time she carried off no less 

 than a hundred and eighty-seven to the nest. I once 

 had another ant, which I employed in my experiments, 

 under observation several days. Before I came up to 

 London in the morning, and when I went to bed at night, 

 I used to put her in a small bottle, but the moment she 

 was let out she began to work again. On one occasion 

 I was away from home for a week. On my return I let 

 her out of the bottle, placing her on a little heap of 

 larvae, about three feet from the nest. Under these 

 circumstances, I certainly did not expect her to work. 

 However, though she .had thus been six days in confine- 

 ment, the brave little creature immediately picked up a 

 larva, carried it off to the nest, and after half an hour's 

 rest returned for another. 



We have hitherto very little information as to the 

 length of life in ants. So far, indeed, as the preparatory 

 stages are concerned, we know that while they take 

 only a few weeks in summer, in some species, as our 

 small yellow meadow ants, the autumn larvae remain 

 with comparatively little change throughout the winter. 

 It is much more difficult to ascertain the length of life of 

 the perfect insect. It has, however, generally been sup- 

 posed that they live about a season, and this is perhaps 

 generally the case ; but I have still some workers of 

 F. cinerea, which I captured at Castellamare, in Novem- 

 ber, 1875, and some of F. sanguined and F.fusca, since 

 September in that year. I have also some queens of 

 F. fusca, which have been with me since December, 

 1874, and still seem in perfect health. 1 If they lived 



1 These latter must have been born at latest in the spring of 

 1874, and would now, therefore (March 1879), be five years old, 

 if not more. 



