2oo FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



are white or yellowish, and somewhat elongated ; 

 those observed by Sir John Lubbock, the great 

 authority on ants, have taken a month or six 

 weeks to hatch. The larvae, like the young of 

 bees and wasps, are white, legless grubs, narrow 

 towards the head. The picture in No. 2, indeed, 

 only imperfectly suggests the constant care with 

 which they are tended by the nurses in early 

 life ; for they are carried about from room to 

 room at different times, apparently to secure the 

 exactly proper degree of warmth or moisture ; 

 and they are also often assorted in a sliding-scale 

 of ages. " It is sometimes very curious to see 

 them in my nests," says Sir John Lubbock, 

 " arranged in groups according to size, so that 

 they remind one of a school divided into five or 

 six classes." After a longer or shorter period of 

 grubhood, which differs in length in different 

 species, they turn into pupae, either in a cocoon 

 or naked. It takes the insects three or four 

 weeks, in the pupa form, to develop into full- 

 grown ants ; and even when they have finished, 

 they are as helpless as babies, and could not 

 escape from the cocoon but for the kind offices 

 of the worker attendants. " It is pretty to see 

 the older ants helping them to extricate them- 

 selves, carefully unfolding the legs and smooth- 

 ing out the wings" of the males and females, 

 " with truly feminine tenderness and delicacy." 

 This utter helplessness of the young ant is very 

 interesting for comparison with the case of man ; 

 for it is now known that nothing conduces to 



