AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 207 



New and more severe labours succeed the birth of the young grubs 

 which are disclosed from the eggs after a few clays. The working ants are 

 now almost without remission engaged in supplying their wants and for- 

 warding their growth. Every evening an hour before sunset they regularly 

 remove the whole brood, as well as the eggs and pupae, which in an old 

 nest all require attention at the same time, to cells situated lower down in 

 the earth, where they will be safe from the cold ; and in the morning they 

 as constantly remove them again towards the surface of the nest. If. 

 however, there is a prospect of cold or wet weather, the provident ants 

 forbear on that day transporting their young from the inner cells, aware 

 that their tender frames are unable to withstand an inclement sky. What 

 is particularly worthy of notice in this herculean task, the ants constantly 

 regulate their proceedings by the sun, removing their young according to the 

 earlier or later rising and setting of that luminary. As soon as his first rays 

 begin to shine on the exterior of the nest, the ants that are at the top go 

 below in great haste to rouse their companions, whom they strike with 

 their antennae, or, when they do not seem to comprehend them, drag with 

 their jaws to the summit, till a swarm of busy labourers fill every passage. 

 These take up the larvae and pupae, which they hastily transport to the 

 upper part of their habitation, where they leave them a quarter of an hour, 

 and then carry them into apartments where they are sheltered from the 

 sun's direct rays. 1 



Severe as this constant and unremitted daily labour seems, it is but a 

 small part of what the affection of the working ants leads them readily to 

 undertake. The feeding of the young brood, which rests solely upon them, 

 is a more serious charge. The nest is constantly stored with larvae the 

 year round, during all which time, except in winter, when the whole society 

 is torpid, they require feeding several times a day with a viscid half- 

 digested fluid that the workers disgorge into their mouths, which when 

 hungry they stretch out to meet those of their nurses. Add to which, that 

 in an old nest there are generally two distinct broods of different ages re- 

 quiring separate attention, and that the observations of Huber make it 

 probable that at one period they require a more substantial food than at 

 another. It is true that the youngest brood at first want but little nutri- 

 ment ; but still, when we consider that they must not be neglected, that 

 the older brood demand incessant supplies, and in a well stocked nest 

 amount to 7000 or 8000, and that the task of satisfying all these cravings, 

 as well as providing for their own subsistence, falls to the. lot of the work- 

 ing ants, we are almost ready to regard the burden as greater than can be 

 borne by such minute agents ; and we shall not wonder at the incessant 

 activity with which we see them foraging on every side. 



Their labour does not end here. It is necessary that the larvae should 

 be kept extremely clean ; and for this purpose the ants are perpetually 

 passing their tongue and mandibles over their body, rendering them by 

 this means perfectly white. 2 After the young grubs have attained their 

 full growth, they surround themselves with a silken cocoon and become 

 pupce, which, food excepted, require as much attention as in the larva 

 state. Every morning they are transported from the bottom of the nest 

 to the surface, and every evening returned to their former quarters. And 

 if, as is often the case, the nest be thrown into ruins by the unlucky foot 



i Huber, 74. Ibid 78. 



