GO TO THE ANT 243 



entire gallery, and were doubtless mocking me at their 

 ease, with their uplifted antennae, under that safe shelter. \ 

 I retired at once from the unequal contest. It was clearly 

 impossible to go on knocking down a fresh gallery every 

 three hours of the day or night throughout a whole life- 

 time. 



Ants, says Mr. Wallace, without one touch of satire, 

 ' force themselves upon the attention of everyone who visits 

 the tropics.' They do, indeed, and that most pungently ; 

 if by no other method, at least by the simple and effectual 

 one of stinging. The majority of ants in every nest are of 

 course neuters, or workers, that is to say, strictly speaking, 

 undeveloped females, incapable of laying eggs. But they 

 still retain the ovipositor, which is converted into a sting, 

 and supplied with a poisonous liquid to eject afterwards 

 into the wound. So admirably adapted to its purpose is 

 this beautiful provision of nature, that some tropical ants 

 can sting with such violence as to make your leg swell and 

 confine you for some days to your room ; while cases have 

 even been known in which the person attacked has fainted 

 with pain, or had a serious attack of fever in consequence. 

 It is not every kind of ant, however, that can sting; a 

 great many can only bite with their little hard horny jaws, 

 and then eject a drop of formic poison afterwards into the 

 hole caused by the bite. The distinction is a delicate 

 physiological one, not much appreciated by the victims of 

 either mode of attack. The perfect females can also sting, 

 but not, of course, the males, who are poor, wretched, use- 

 less creatures, only good as husbands for the community, 

 and dying off as soon as they have performed their part in 

 the world another beautiful provision, which saves the 

 workers the trouble of killing them off, as bees do with 

 drones after the marriage flight of the queen bee. 



The blind driver-ants of West Africa are among the 



B2 



