ABIDING CITIES 195 



you remember that ants work for the most part 

 with the head only, you will understand why that 

 portion needs to be the most muscular and power- 

 ful part of the body. A lobster has two very 

 strong claws in front, because those are his fight- 

 ing and prey-catching organs ; the ant's jaws 

 just answer in function to the lobster's claws, 

 and to our hands and arms, and, therefore, they 

 are correspondingly big and muscular. Male and 

 female ants do not have to dig tunnels, to build 

 up chambers, to drag heavy weights back to the 

 nest ; therefore, they have smaller heads and 

 bigger eyes ; they are adapted only for flying 

 and for producing the younger generation. The 

 middle segments of the body, on the contrary, 

 are large and powerful in the males and females, 

 because they have to work the wings ; while in 

 the workers they are smaller, especially in one 

 segment, because the workers are wingless. The 

 legs, however, are fairly strong, since they need 

 to pull and to supply a firm footing when the 

 ant is tugging hard at some heavy object. But 

 between the part of the body which forms the 

 attachment for the six legs and the abdomen, 

 or " tail," there is a single characteristic segment, 

 or stalk, very thin and slender, which bears a 

 sort of scale, peculiar to the ant family. The 

 side view, with the legs removed, enables you 

 to note how admirably the ant is adapted for 

 turning in almost any direction, and explains 

 that extraordinary flexibility of body which you 

 must have noticed whenever you have watched 



