34 THE ANTS 



species of the genus Formica, where, according 

 to Forel, the workers do not follow in line over 

 unknown ground, and frequently carry one 

 another, the one carried being rolled up under 

 the head of the other, and the species of Lasius, 

 where the workers follow one another in line, 

 but never carry each other. Among the stinging 

 ants another method of carrying occurs in certain 

 genera. The porter seizes the one she wishes 

 to carry by the external edge of one of her 

 mandibles and then throws her over her 

 back, so that she lies along the back of her 

 porter with her ventral aspect uppermost and 

 her legs and antennae folded as in the nymph state. 

 Neither of these methods sounds very comfort- 

 able, but then probably an ant's idea of comfort 

 and our own may be very different. 



Lord Avebury, in his Ants, Bees and Wasps, 

 tells us that he has known a male of Myrmica 

 ruginodis live for nine months, although no 

 doubt, as he says, they generally die almost 

 immediately, and he has known queen ants to 

 live for seven years, and workers, which he had 

 in his nest, for six years. 



