140 INSECTS HYMENOPTEBA DIAGRAM 6. 



If it is too narrow, other workers enlarge the gate to allow the 

 body of the cockchafer to pass, and then reduce it to its former 

 dimensions. 



The workers are entrusted with all the labours ; they build 

 and repair the house, they take care of the eggs, and feed the 

 larva?. They also seek the honey of flowers, 

 with which they feed the white and almost 

 motionless larva). Then if the weather is fine* 

 and not too hot or too cold, as these larvae 

 cannot walk, they bring them into the sun, and 

 lay them on the anthill. When a little rain 

 falls, or they are disturbed, they remove these 

 Worker ant. larvro, which are larger than themselves, with 

 their mandibles, and descend into the interior. These larvse are 

 generally called ant's eggs. If we look at them, we shall see tire 

 segments of their body, and perceive that they are not eggs ; 

 the eggs themselves are much smaller, and the ants only bring 

 the larva) to the sun when they are already large. 



The larvco spin a cocoon in which they undergo their 

 metamorphosis, and when the time comes for them to emerge, 

 the other ants assist them, and afterwards arrange all the old 

 empty cocoons in a corner of the anthill. 



Ants are generally courageous. When they are molested, or 

 an attempt is made to destroy their house, they rush out in great 

 agitation, and some try to drive away the enemy while otheri 

 repair the damage. When fighting, the ants rise on their hind 

 legs, and bring their abdomen forward, from which they 

 discharge small drops of a transparent and very acrid liquid at 

 the enemy. 



It often happens that an anthill is inhabited by two kinds of 

 workers, one large, and armed with strong mandibles, and the 

 others smaller. But it soon appears that the two kinds of 

 workers seem to play a different part in the community. The 

 large ones, -those armed with strong mandibles, do not work. 

 They seem to rest all day, but if an enemy threatens the anthill, 



