INSECTS HYMENOPTERA DIAGBAM 6. 



141 



they come out to attack it : and these are especially soldiers ; 

 the others are specially labourers, and take 

 care of and repair the dwelling ; they fetch 

 provisions, and even bring food to the ants 

 who do not take the trouble to go in search 

 of it. These working ants are not the same 

 species, but the captives of the others, who 

 sally forth from time to time to plunder the 

 nests of feebler species to obtain workers. 

 The slave-making ants are not natives of 

 Britain, but are found on the Continent. 

 Female ant. The males and females of ants have large 



wings with which they rise in the air, and we sometimes see 

 considerable swarms carried about by the wind. 



The habits of ants differ much according to the country which 

 they inhabit, and according to the situation of the anthill, audit is 

 always very instructive to observe and study those of our native 

 species. They do not all make their dwellings in the ground. 

 Some prefer trunks of dead trees, in which they sometimes 

 hollow out very long galleries, with rooms at various intervals. 

 The ichneumon. Sometimes when we crush a caterpillar in 



spring, we observe that its body is 

 full of other living larvse. These 

 larva) are those of a small hymen- 

 opterous insect called an ichneumon- 

 fly, which has its abdomen furnished 

 with a very long point or ovipositor. 

 The ichneumon is a winged insect, 

 and when the female is about to 

 lay, she settles on a caterpillar, 

 Ichneumon. pierces its skin with her ovipositor, 



and deposits her eggs in the body of the caterpillar. The eggs 

 hatch, and the young larve feed on the flesh of the caterpillar, 

 which suffers a living death while these larvse devour it. At last 

 it dies, when the larva? of the ichneumon emerge, and spin 



