12 Ants. 



workers or imperfect females (which constitute the 

 great majority), males, and perfect females. There 

 are often, however, several queens in an ants' nest ; 

 while, as we all know, there is never more than one 

 queen mother in a hive. The queens of ants are 

 provided with wings, but after a single flight they 

 tear them off, and do not again quit the nest. In 

 addition to the ordinary workers, there is in some 

 species a second, or rather a third, form of female. 

 In almost any ants' nest we may see that the 

 workers differ more or less in size. The amount of 

 difference, however, depends upon the species. In 

 the small brown Garden Ant, the workers are, for 

 instance, much more uniform than in the little 

 yellow Meadow Ant, or in the Harvesting 1 Ant, 

 where some of them are much more than twice as 

 large as others. But in certain ants there are 

 differences still more remarkable. Thus, in a 

 Mexican species (fig. 4), besides the common 

 workers, which have the form of ordinary neuter 

 ants, there are certain others in which the abdomen 

 is swollen into an immense sphere. These indi- 

 viduals are very inactive, and serve principally as 

 living honey-jars. They receive the honey from the 

 foragers, retain it unaltered in their crop, and feed 

 their companions when fresh food falls short. In 

 another kind, very common in Southern Europe, 

 there are also two distinct forms without any 

 intermediate gradations ; one with heads of the 

 usual proportion, and a second with immense heads 



