INSECTS HYMENOPTERA DIAGRAM 6. 139 



paper. We sometimes find pretty wasps' nests as large as 

 walnuts which only contain a small number of cells. These 

 nests are made by the female only, who works, instead of doing 

 nothing, like the queen bee, and she alone rears the larvae which 

 emerge from the eggs which she lays in the nest. But these 

 larva) produce workers which immediately begin to build the 

 large nests which are found in hollow trees, holes, and 

 sometimes under the roofs of houses. 



Ants. Ants are not less interesting than bees, although they 

 are of no use to man. Ants, like bees, live in colonies, consisting 

 of males, females, and workers. Only there are a great many 

 females in each anthill. The workers have no wings, and are 

 the ants which are seen everywhere, and which are always so 

 interesting to observe. 



. Ants have no wax, and build underground dwellings which 

 sometimes contain a great number of halls and galleries, 

 extending a long distance below the surface. To watch an 

 anthill and its neighbourhood is one of the most interesting 

 spectacles that can be imagined. 



In the morning before sunrise all is quiet in the neigh- 

 bourhood, and the anthill is closed, no opening is visible for the 

 exit of the ants, which are all inside. But when the sun has 

 risen, we begin to see some workers which clear away the soil, 

 and make doors by which other ants soon come out. In the 

 evening, these gates are closed, and they are thus opened every 

 morning, and shut every night. 



However, the other ants go in all directions, along paths 

 under the grass and moss, which correspond to their highways, 

 and sometimes extend very far. They come and go, meet, stop, 

 and touch each other's antennae as if to speak. Those which 

 return are generally loaded. Sometimes they have much 

 difficulty in carrying their burden, which may be a twig, a bit of 

 dead leaf, a cockchafer's wing, or even a whole cockchafer. But 

 then several ants join in carrying so large a body ; some pull, 

 others push, and at last it arrives at the gate of tke ant-hill. 



