ANTS— NURSING AND EDUCATION. 59 



Oreat care is also taken by the workers in cleaning the 

 larvae, as well as in carrying them up and down the 

 chambers of the nest for warmth or shelter. 



When fully grown the larvae spin cocoons, and are then 

 pupse, or the ' ants' eggs ' of bird-fanciers. These require 

 no food, but still need incessant attention with reference 

 to warmth, moisture, and cleanliness. When the time 

 arrives for their emergence as perfect insects, the workers 

 assist them to get out of their larval cases by biting 

 through the walls of the latter. It is noticeable that in 

 doing this the workers do not keep to any exact time, 

 but free them sometimes earlier and sometimes later, in 

 accordance with their rate of development. * The little 

 animal when freed from its chrysalis is still covered with 

 a thin skin, like a little shirt, which has to be pulled off. 

 When we see how neatly and gently this is done, and 

 how the young creature is then washed, brushed, and 

 fed, we are involuntarily reminded of the nursing of 

 human babies. The empty cases, or cocoons, are carried 

 outside the nest, and may be seen heaped together there 

 for a long time. Some species carry them far away from 

 the nest, or turn them into building materials for the 

 dwelling.' ^ 



Education. — The young ant does not appear to come 

 into the world with a full instinctive knowledge of all its 

 duties as a member of a social community. It is led about 

 the nest, and 'trained to a knowledge of domestic duties, 

 especially in the case of the larvae.' Later on the young 

 ants are taught to distinguish between friends and foes. 

 When an ants' nest is attacked by foreign ants, the young 

 ones never join in the fight, but confine themselves to 

 removing the pupae ; and that the knowledge of hereditary 

 enemies is not wholly instinctive in ants is proved by the 

 following experiment, which we owe to Forel. He put 

 young ants belonging to three different species into a glass 

 case with pupae of six other species — all the species being 

 naturally hostile to one another. The young ants did 

 not quarrel, but worked together to tend the pupae. When 

 the latter hatched out, an artificial colony was formed of 

 ' Biichner, Geistesleben der Thiere, pp. 66-7- 



