CHAPTER II 



ANTS 



ANTS, by reason of their diligence and intelligent behaviour, have 

 been notorious since the days of Solomon. There are more than 

 thirty species in this country, and many of them are extremely 

 common. In their most important structural features these insects 

 resemble the wasps and bees, and are, together with the saw-flies 

 and some others, included with them in the one order Hymen- 

 opt era. The most striking peculiarity about the body of an ant 

 is the extremely slender form of the first, or the first and second, 

 abdominal segments. Thus the " waist " is very decided, and 

 great mobility of the abdomen attained. Further, the mandibles 

 are capable of being used in total independence of the rest of 

 the mouth parts ; as a rule, too, the scape of the antenna forms a 

 sharp angle with the remaining joints, 



As in the Wasps and honey-bees, an ant community is com- 

 posed chiefly of workers (sterile females), on whom falls the re- 

 sponsibility of the welfare of the 

 nest. There may be one or more 

 " queens " in a nest, and their 

 eggs are tended by the workers. 

 Males and daughter queens may be 

 present also, but only at the season 

 of swarming (i.e. from mid-August 

 to mid-September). Both these 

 B, last are provided with wings, and 

 on a suitably hot day they rise in 

 clouds into the air and there mate 

 during the nuptial flight. At times these swarms of " winged 

 ants " are so dense as to cause much inconvenience to human 

 beings ; occasionally, too, swarms have been swept out to sea 

 by a sudden breeze and drowned, appearing at the succeeding 



FlG. 4. A, cluster of ants' eggs ; 

 larva ; C, pupa. The +d represents 

 the actual dimensions of the cluster A. 



