BRITISH INSECTS 



bance, is regarded will be known to all those who watch 

 these insects at work and play. With few exceptions, 

 there are three kinds of individuals in each community, 

 made up of male, female, and worker. The latter is 

 an imperfect female. This last-named has not alto- 

 gether lost the power of egg-production, but she cannot 

 be fertilised, and only produces males. The male has 

 wings, so also has the female during the nuptial flight, 

 after which they are cast or bitten off, but the worker is 

 wingless. The small white larva is legless, the eggs are 

 of microscopic size, and the pupa is the so-called " ant- 

 egg." It may, or may not, be enclosed in a cocoon, 

 according to the species. The food of Ants mostly 

 consists of insects, fruit, nectar from plants, and the 

 honey-dew secreted by aphids. Where one finds the 

 latter there, sure enough, Ants will be in attendance. 

 The worker seeks assiduously for food, and has the 

 power of regurgitating a part to feed the inmates of the 

 Ant-hill. These inmates need not all be Ants, as slaves 

 and guests are both given apartments in the busy City. 

 Ants are of some service in fertilising flowers, but not 

 nearly to the same extent as Bees, as they do not travel 

 so far afield, and more often restrict attention to a small 

 area. Cross-fertilisation is, therefore, infrequent. The 

 present species constructs large hillocks of earth, and 

 the freshly-worked soil is plainly visible near the summit 

 in early Spring. In Winter the inhabitants work their 

 way well below ground, but at the call of the sun they 

 approach nearer the surface. When the community 

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