SOCIAL INSECTS 115 



capability of doing certain things on impulse when appropriate 

 occasions present themselves; but since individual ants profit 

 largely by experience, we may also say without hesitation that 

 many of their actions are intelligent. There can be little doubt 

 that young workers receive a practical education in their duties, 

 learning by example if not by precept. If so, we have a very 

 convincing proof of marked intelligence. Where, as in some 

 tropical ants, there are numerous castes, the mental life of the 

 community is probably more complex, but comparatively few 

 observations have been made on this difficult subject. 



The early stages in the formation of societies have been ob- 

 served in some species, and are probably substantially the same in 

 all. A foundress queen lays her first batch of eggs, and carefully 

 tends the larvae when they hatch out, until they pass into the pupa 

 stage, from which they emerge as workers, who at once concern 

 themselves with the industrial work of the young community. 

 The queen is therefore soon able, as in the ordinary social wasps 

 and bees, to restrict herself solely to the duty of egg-laying. One 

 important point in the domestic economy of all ant-societies may 

 here be mentioned. Special cells of paper or wax are not con- 

 structed for the reception of eggs, as in Bees and Wasps, but these 

 are deposited in chambers, variously situated, according to the 

 species. It is further to be noted that the larva may or may not 

 spin a cocoon before passing into the pupa state. When a cocoon 

 is made it is removed by the workers at the proper time, so as to 

 facilitate the escape of the perfect insect. 



There is a large amount of variation as to the number of 

 individuals contained in an ant-society. This is very large in most 

 of the kinds which have been carefully studied, and it is naturally 

 so in cases where the social life is very complex. Simple instances 

 are afforded by some of the Indian Ants (species of Polyrhachis), 

 where a single queen and less than a. dozen workers live together 

 in a little one-chambered dwelling that looks almost like a minia- 

 ture bird's-nest, and is constructed of a papery substance with a 

 lining of silk. These small homes are found on leaves, and are 

 commonly so placed or made as to be inconspicuous. Another 

 sort of Asiatic Ant (CEcophylla smaragdina) lives in larger com- 

 munities upon foliage, of which the leaves are converted into 

 dwellings in a very remarkable manner. The workers roll them 

 up and fix their edges together by means of a viscid fluid derived 



