294 THE BRITISH NATURE BOOK 



way. Other workers act as guards, some being on duty at the entrances of 

 the nest, ready to challenge any intruder and to fight to the death if neces- 

 sary. They appear to know their own " fellow-citizens " some kind of 

 exchange of sign, done by touching antennae, passing between them. I have 

 introduced into one of my artificial nests, some weeks after it had been first 

 made and filled, fresh workers from the original nest, and have seen the whole 

 small community indulge in a sort of ecstatic dance, showing as plainly as 

 can be both recognition and affection; 



The queen, let me add, is constantly guarded and caressed by a crowd of 

 workers, who act as royal attendants and devote themselves to her. I have 

 elsewhere told the story of how I saw them try to restore to life a dead 

 queen which I had removed from the nest, and do their best to drag her 

 back into it. 



They are very strong and active insects, capable of moving masses many 

 times their weight and size. The Wood Ants may be seen moving their pine 

 needles, as a workman might (if he could) carry scaffold poles ; whilst their 

 industry is seen in the case of the Meadow Ant, which, grain by grain, makes 

 the mounds, so familiar a sight in fields and on banks ; tunnels innumerable 

 passages ; makes chambers and rooms ; and cements into a solid mass the 

 deepest portions of the nest. 



The larvae grow rapidly, and at last change into pupae, when they require 

 no more feeding ; but they are carried up to the surface chambers as regu- 

 larly as ever by day, and removed to the deeper nurseries at night. 



In the pupal form two distinct characteristics are to be noted. Those 

 ants that have stings rear pupae that are naked that is, not enclosed in any 

 cocoon. It almost seems as if Nature, having provided the workers with 

 such defensive instruments, deemed it unnecessary to protect the infants 

 further ; but those species which have no stings rear pupae that are enclosed 

 in silken cocoons. When the time comes for these to emerge, the workers 

 neatly bite off the top of the cocoon and help the inmate out. It is for a short 

 while very helpless and limp. In the case of males and queens the wings are 

 crumpled and folded. It is the duty of the workers to caress and " massage " 

 them : to unfold and stretch the wings. 



The virgin queens and the males are then shepherded by the workers 

 towards the entrances of the nest, and on some warm evening in July or August 

 these go on their honeymoon flight in thousands. The worker pupae, be it 

 said, have no wings. 



When the queens drop to earth again, they either pull off their own wings 

 or workers do so for them, since they will be needed no more ; and these royal 

 ladies become the mothers of the nests, living for some years, and each laying 

 thousands of eggs. 



All kinds of other insects and animals are to be found in the ants' nests. 

 A remarkable minute white wood-louse, known as Platyarthrus hoffmanseggii, 

 is kept as a sort of scavenger. It is quite blind, has two continually moving 



