ANTS, BEES AND WASPS 171 



The ferocious little Fire Ant of tropical America also occa- 

 sionally invades houses in vast numbers, but they are much more 

 harmful, for they devour the food and even destroy the clothing 

 of the inhabitants. Their sting, too, is very painful, and the 

 ants attack human beings and animals with the greatest fierceness. 



The modes of life and the habits of the little ant-people are 

 wonderfully varied, and often, to the human mind, most extra- 

 ordinary. None, perhaps, are more peculiar in their ways than 

 the Honey Ants, of the United States, Australia, and Mexico. 

 It is the custom of this curious tribe to utilise certain members 

 of the community as living receptacles for the food supply of the 

 whole colony. These ants are filled with a kind of honey, the 

 product of a gall on the leaves of the oak tree, so that they become 

 enormously distended and are practically unable to move. They 

 pass their time suspended from the roof of the store-room, visited 

 from time to time by the ordinary workers, who pour fresh honey 

 down the throat of these living honey-pots, or draw off supplies 

 for the use of the community. Should one of these " honey-pots " 

 meet with an accident and spill the honey, the workers gather 

 round and lap it up ; but if the honey -bearer dies the corpse is 

 buried and the stored honey is not touched. 



The Social Bees are quite as interesting in their ways as the 

 ants, although their habits are not so diverse. Every hive or 

 nest in the summer season normally contains a queen, a host 

 of workers, and a certain number of males or drones. The old 

 idea that the queen bee ruled over the hive, served by her willing 

 and obedient subjects, has long been dispelled. The hive is in 

 reality a republic, and the queen bee is merely the mother of the 

 hive ; she takes no part in the affairs of state, and her life is ordered 

 and regulated by the worker bees, who are the true rulers of the 

 colony. 



The Honey-bee (Apis mellifica) is considered to be the highest 

 type of bee ; the wisdom of her ways, and the marvellous mechanism 

 of her compact little body, so perfectly adapted to her life's work, 

 have won the admiration of all thinking people. More books have, 

 perhaps, been Written upon the life and ways of this sober-looking 

 little insect than upon all other creatures put together. It is 

 impossible here to give more than a brief sketch of the life and 

 character of this most fascinating of little insects, but for all who 



