64 ANIMALS AND INSECTS 



many thousands of individuals, the ants never quarrel, 

 but go about their work from early morning until 

 dark, each one always working for the good of all. 



When we speak of nurses and road-builders we 

 think always of human beings, men and women, 

 do we not? Who would think that animals or in- 

 sects had nursery maids, that they engaged in road 

 building, or kept cows? Yet all these things the 

 ants do, those little ants which we so thoughtlessly 

 tread under foot, and they do it most carefully and 

 industriously. 



''But how can they build roads, if they have 

 only legs, and how can they be nursery maids if 

 they have no hands with which to wash the little 

 baby ants?" you might ask. We shall see. 



The ants have six legs, but they also have a pair 

 of mandibles by the side of their mouths, which 

 take the place of oui hands, and with which they 

 carry things; they also have a pair of long antennse 

 below their eyes, which they use to clean themselves 

 and their friends and the little baby ants, and with 

 which, by touch, they know their friends and ac- 

 quaintances. If you look closely at an ant you can 

 see these mandibles and antennse. 



Now in every ant hill there are four different sets 

 of ants: the mother ants, called queens, who are 

 very important; the father ants, who are rather 

 lazy and do not live very long in the hill; the workers, 

 divided up into several bands that do all the work ; and 

 the baby ants, who have to be very carefully tended. 



The queens are greatly honored by all in the ant 

 city. The others never turn their backs to them, 



