Insect Study 427 



The ant nurse takes the eggs as soon as laid, and whether or not 

 her care retards or hastens hatching we know not; but we do 

 know, that although the queen ant may not lay more than two 

 eggs per day, a goodly number of these seem to hatch at the same 

 time. The eggs are massed in bundles and arc sticky on the outside so as 

 to hold the bundle together. Miss Fielde says, as the eggs are hatching, 

 one ant will hold up the bundle, wdiile another feeds those which have 

 broken the shell. The larvae, when young, also hang together by means 

 of tiny hooks on their bodies. This habit of the eggs and young larva is a 

 convenient one, since an ant is thus able to carry many at a time. 



The larvoe are odd looking little creatures, shaped like crookncck 

 squashes, the small end being the head and neck and the latter being very 

 extensible. The ant nurses, by feeding some more than others, are able 

 to keep a brood at the same stage of development; and in a well ordered 

 ant-nest, we find those of the same size in one nursery. I have often 

 thought of a graded school as I have noted in ant-nests the youngsters 

 assorted according to size. 



The ants seem to realize the cost and care of rearing their young; and 

 w^hen a nest is attacked, the oldest, which are usually in the pupa stage, 

 are saved first. When the larvae are young, they are fed on regurgitated 

 food; but as they grow older, the food is brought to them, or they to the 

 food, and they do their own eating. In one of my nests, I placed part of 

 the yolk of an egg hard boiled, and the ant nurses dumped the larvae dt.wn 

 around the edges of it; there they munched industriously, until through 

 their transparent bodies I could see the yellow of the egg the whole length 

 of the alimentary canal. The ant nurses are very particular about tem- 

 peratures for their young, and Miss Fielde says they are even more careful 

 about draughts. Thus they are obliged to move them about in the ground 

 nests, carrying them down to the lower nurseries in the heat of the day, 

 and bringing them up, nearer to the warm stones, during the evenings. 

 This moving is always done carefully, and though the ant's jaws are such 

 formidable nippers, she carries her baby sisters with gentleness; and if 

 they be pupae, she holds them by the loose pupal skin, like carrying a baby 

 by its clothes. The pupae look like plump little grain bags, tied at one 

 end with a black string. They are the size of small grains of wheat, and 

 are often called ants' eggs, which is absurd, since they are almost as large 

 as the ant. Ants' eggs are not larger than pin points. 



The ant nurses keep the larvae and pupae very clean by licking them ; 

 and when a youngster issues from the pupa skin, it is a matter of much 

 interest to the nurses. I have often seen two or three of them help 

 straighten out the cramped legs and antennae of the young one, and hapten 

 to feed her with regurgitated food. When ants first issue from the pupa 

 skin they are pale in color, their eyes being very black in contrast; they 

 are usually helpless and stupid, although they often try to clean their 

 antenna; and make a toilet; but they do not know enough to follow their 

 elders from one room to another, and they are a source of much care to the 

 nurses. In case of moving, a nurse will lock jaws wath a "callow, " as a freshly 

 hatched adult ant is called, and drag her along, the legs of the callow 

 sprawling helplessly meanwhile. If in haste, the nurse takes hold any- 

 where, by the neck or the leg, and hustles her charge along; if she takes 

 her by the waist the callow curls up like a kitten, and is thus more easily 

 moved. After moving them from one chamber to the next, I have noticed 



