SCHOOL ENTOMOLOGY 



100. Ants. (Formtcvidea.) 

 The ants are best known as 

 wingless creatures because it 

 is only at certain times in 

 the year that the winged 

 individuals appear. These 

 winged forms are the true 

 males and females. They 

 mate, found new colonies 

 and either die or lose their 

 wings. In spite of the fact 

 that ants are almost invari- 

 ably small insects, and, while 

 numerous, not more so than 

 many other forms of equal size 

 that escape attention almost 

 entirely, they are, on the 

 contrary, among the best 

 known of insects and have 

 received much more study 

 than any other forms except, 

 perhaps, the bees. The 

 reason for the existing general 

 interests in ants is, without 

 doubt, their social habit and 

 communal organization. Of 

 nearly three thousand de- 

 scribed species, none is known 

 to be solitary. 



In the ant colony are 



^ found several kinds of individ- 



FIG. 113. Types of Hymcnoptera. uals; the males and females, 



Digger-wasps (Sphecoidea). the workers and the soldiers. 



Slightly reduced. 



