28 TWO CHAPTERS ON ANTS. 



Huber and other observers state that the 

 nurse assists the young ant to escape from 

 its pupa case, and feeds it for several days 

 thereafter. But it is quite remarkable that 

 a red soldier seldom partakes of the sirup 

 or honey from the leaf, yet he often takes 

 grains of sugar to store away, and will assist 

 in taking a large lump to the nest. 



The sluggish oak moth (Dryocampa sena- 

 toria) afforded the ants a rare harvest. This 

 moth deposits her eggs on the underside of 

 the oak leaf, and she is so sleepy during the 

 day that she will not stir when the leaf is 

 picked from the tree, and she will even sub- 

 mit to being drowned without a struggle, 

 rather than make the effort to rouse up and 

 fly. So, on throwing one of these moths near 

 the nest, it is soon surrounded with ants, and 

 before it fairly awakens several pairs of man- 

 dibles are fastened so firmly on its body a?id 

 head that its feeble struggles are of no avail. 

 These moths are always taken into the nest 

 head -first; several times I have turned a 

 moth round just as the ants reached the en- 

 trance with it, but they would immediately 

 turn it head-first, seeming to know as well 

 as I did that this was the only way that it 

 could be carried through the narrow pas- 

 sage. 



