56 POPULAR ENTOMOLOGY. 



resemble Bees in many of these particulars which distin- 

 guish them from most other insects, for example, in 

 having the largest part of their community composed of 

 workers, or imperfect females. These useful creatures seem 

 to have the sole charge of domestic affairs ; for though the 

 parent Ant lays the eggs, they are always under the imme- 

 diate and solicitous care of the workers, who regulate the 

 degree of heat and moisture necessary for hatching them ; 

 and when the young grubs appear, it is on these attentive 

 nurses that the duty of feeding them devolves, which they 

 do, either with their own half-digested food, or some peculiar 

 fluid secreted for that purpose. It seems probable that more 

 than one of these kind foster-mothers is required for each 

 larva. When the larvae are full-grown, they enclose them- 

 selves in cocoons, in which they undergo the rest of their 

 change, and the attachment of the workers to these cocoons 

 is even greater than to the eggs or young larvse. They may 

 be seen bringing them out every fine morning, taking them 

 in when the heat is too intense, sheltering them from rain, 

 and, although only half the size of their nurslings, running 

 with them as fleetly as if they had no weight whatever. 

 Their love for these partially-developed young is so great, 

 that they are said to invade other Ant-hills, to carry off all 



