THE WEB OF LIFE 329 



definitely towards a result, and many chains may work 

 together for hours on end trying to draw two leaves close 

 to one another. We could not have a better instance of 

 social co-operation. 



The foundation of a new ant-colony takes place in various 

 ways. After the nuptial flight the males die, and the 

 females that escape the numerous pitfalls take refuge 

 in crevices in the ground and lay their eggs. Janet has 

 shown that the muscles of flight degenerate and break up 

 after their use is past, and it seems that the material serves 

 for the nutrition of the mother at this critical time. In 

 Atta sexdens and some other cases, Pieron points out 

 that the provident female carries with her a supply of the 

 mycelium of an edible fungus on which she and her offspring 

 afterwards subsist. When the earliest workers are hatched 

 it may be necessary to sacrifice some of the eggs to keep 

 things agoing. 



Sometimes the fertile female utilizes a deserted nest of 

 some other species, or sneaks into a tenanted nest. Some- 

 times the home of a small species is as it were grafted on 

 to that of a large species, which it plunders. Sometimes 

 the fertile female, falling near her old home, or the nest 

 of the same species, is joined by workers who help her to 

 start a new nest. Sometimes the workers of another species 

 will receive a fertile female into the nest, with the result 

 that their own queen abdicates, or is killed, or shares the 

 honours with the new-comer. Very curious are the cases 

 where a warlike queen enters a foreign nest, drives off the 

 adult tenants, and establishes herself as foster-queen of 

 their undeveloped progeny. 



The way in which a new colony is started has a good 

 deal to do with the economy that is established. It may 



