186 OTHER DENIZENS OF THE WOODS 



Where oak-trees flourish, the hornet {Vespa crabro), dreaded on account of its 

 painful sting, may generally be found. The largest species of the social wasps 

 inhabiting Europe, it kills bees for the pm-pose of sucking their honey, licks the 

 sap of trees, and is very fond of sweet things generally. Mainly brownish red or 

 blackish with bright yellow rings, hornets are conspicuous by their contrast of 

 colour, and by their size. The queens are an inch and an eighth in length, the 

 workers a quarter of an inch less, and the males measure a trifle less than an inch. 

 Another family of the aculeated Hymenoptera are the ants 

 (Formicidce), distinguishable in many ways from the bees and wasps, 

 and chiefly characterised by the first, and sometimes the second ring of the 

 abdomen being modified into a stalk. As with bees, the community of ants 

 includes a multitude of workers, with a few males, and still fewer females, to cany 

 on the race ; but in this case the workers are not winged, although the males are 

 always so, and the breeding-females, at least at pairing-time, have also wings, 

 which, especially the front pair, are very large, and easily fall oft". They are, in 

 fact, cast oft" by their owners, so soon as the nuptial dance is over. The males are 

 much inferior in size to the females, with smaller heads and larger eyes, and one 

 more antennal segment and abdominal ring Like the breeding-females, they have 

 behind the mesothorax an almost triangular, arched surface, represented in the 

 workers by one of narrower and strip-like form. The workers may also be 

 distinguished by the relatively large size of the front of the thorax ; whereas in 

 the males and females this portion is small, and often hidden between the head 

 and the very large mesothorax. The workers either have no lateral eyes, or but 

 very small ones, and larger heads than the males or females. Like the latter, they 

 may possess a protrusile sting, or may be furnished only with a gland secreting 

 formic acid. It is this acid which causes the strong odour that remains when the 

 hand is brought into close contact with an ant-hill. At pairing-time the breeding- 

 females fly into the air to a height of from 100 to 200 feet, in large, cloud-like 

 swarms, usually in summer, although some kinds swarm so early as April or May, 

 while others wait till the autumn. While in the air, the females meet the males, 

 with whom they fall down in pairs, to lose their wings, or break them oft' them- 

 selves, and return, borne by the workers, to the nest, whilst the males disperse, and 

 soon perish or fall a prey to other animals. It is, indeed, only the fertile females 

 and the workers which hibernate ; although the eggs, if laid before the spring 

 (when new ant-colonies are founded), may also remain dormant through the winter. 

 Ants live together in large colonies, which may be situated in hollow trees, under 

 stones, beneath the ground, under moss, in walls and rafters, or may be constructed 

 by the ants themselves. In these colonies the decomposition of the vegetable 

 and animal matter accumulated by the workers produces a higher temperature 

 than that of the outside air. 



In the construction of their dwellings the workers, which far exceed the 

 fertile females and males in number, do all the work ; they repair the dwelling, feed 

 the larvae, and carry the pupae (erroneously termed " ants - eggs ") to the sun, 

 and bring them back to the nest, while the fertile females exist only for the 

 purpose of laying eggs. Many ants have denned roads or paths of their own 

 construction, along which they go forth in quest of building material or food. Their 



