256 THE HETEROGYNA. 



which are said by Gould and other writers to amount 

 in the whole to no less than four or five thousand, 

 the deposition of which, however, extends over a con- 

 siderable period. As soon as the Queen Ant has de- 

 posited a portion of her eggs in one of the cells of the 

 nest, the workers devote all their energies to the 

 tending of the eggs, which are the proper objects of 

 their care. With the most unwearied assiduity they 

 watch over these until the young larvae are excluded, 

 when their exertions are redoubled, as they have not 

 only to feed these, but to carry them from chamber 

 to chamber, so as to keep them always in the tem- 

 perature most favourable to their development. The 

 food with which the larvae are supplied is a fluid dis- 

 gorged from the stomachs of the workers, probably 

 consisting for the most part of the saccharine juices 

 of flowers and fruits, of which the Ants are exceed- 

 ingly fond. In sunny days the larvae are brought up 

 close to the surface of the nest, where they may ob- 

 tain the full benefit of the warmth of the sun, and in 

 some cases they are even placed on the outside, 

 exposed to the rays of that luminary. At the ap- 

 proach of night however, or of rain, the larvae are 

 immediately carried down into the inner chambers, 

 where they are of course sheltered alike from the un- 

 wholesome influence of nocturnal chills and from the 

 equally injurious effects of wet. The pupae, which 

 usually enclose themselves in thin but tough co- 

 coons, are treated in the same way, and when the 

 perfect insect is ready to emerge from its little tene- 

 ment, its assiduous nurses are careful to assist it by 

 gnawing a hole at the end of the cocoon, through 

 which the insect escapes, still enveloped in the 

 delicate pellicle which has enclosed it through its 



