ANTS. 55 



attacked. A few only of the community are architects ; the lest having 

 other appropriate employments. The females (for there are as many as 

 three hundred), unlike the queen bee, do not pass their lives in receiving the 

 homage of their subjects, but perform every species of labour. The 

 neuters, however, as among bees, are the true workers. They build the 

 nest and forage for food for the males, females, and the young. The worms 

 are not locked up in a cell surrounded by food, but require to be fed like 

 the young of birds. 'I saw,' says Reaumur, 'a female wasp, which had 

 entered the vespiary with the belly of an insect ; this she contrived by 

 degrees to swallow, after which she ran to various cells, and disgorging that 

 which she had eaten, distributed it among the brood of worms.' Hence it 

 appears that it not only procured the food, but prepared it by a partial 

 digestion. The wasp is particularly fond of the belly of the bee ; it is a 

 choice bit which it eagerly seeks. It will watch for hours at the door of a 

 bee-hive, pounce upon some unfortunate bee which is about to enter, and 

 tumbling it to the ground, in a trice separate, with its two serrated teeth, 

 the tender abdomen, containing the soft intestines and the honey-bag, from 

 the dry and hard chest of the insect ; having secured its prey, it hurries 

 away to its habitation. The large blue bottle-fly is another delicate morsel 

 greatly coveted by the wasp." Family Library. 



The hornet is the largest of the wasp tribe. It is a terrible enemy of the 

 hive bee ; its sting is very dangerous even to man. 



7. The ants Formica also present three kinds of individuals, 

 males, females, and workers ; they live in societies composed 

 chiefly of workers who are unprovided with wings ; so soon as 

 the males and females have acquired wings they leave the habita- 

 tion ; the males soon after die, and the females that are to become 

 motjiers quickly lose their wings ; some go off to found new 

 colonies, others are held prisoners by the neuters in the old 

 habitation, and there lay their eggs. The manner of construct- 

 ing these dwellings, and in fact every thing relating to the habits 

 of ants, is extremely curious. In general the larvae dig in the 

 earth a multitude of galleries, chambers arranged in stories, and, 

 carrying out the dirt, often raise up above the nest a little hill, 

 in the interior of which these indefatigable workmen form new 

 stories similar to those below ; sometimes they construct from this 

 dirt, galleries which they carry up along the stems of shrubs on 

 which these insects go in pursuit of food, and which shelter them in 

 their daily journeys. Other ants construct their nests in trees that 

 have been already attacked by other insects and softened by decay. 

 The larva? also receive assiduous attention from the workers ; 

 each one is supplied by the latter with the juices proper for it, 

 and, when the weather is fine, we observe these active nurses 

 carry the young out of the nest to expose them to the rays of the 

 sun, defend them from their enemies, transport them back again 

 to the nest on the approach of evening, and keep them clean. 



8. Bees (fig. 51) Apis and some other Hymenop'teraB pre 



7. What are the habits of ants ? 



8. What are the characters of bees ? 



