ANTS 



ii 



high-water mark as a black line along the shore, so prodigious are 

 their numbers. The males usually die soon after their flight, 

 but the fertilised " queens " cast their wings, or may be deprived 

 of them by " workers/' and become founders of new communities. 

 In the construction of nests the ants are very different from 

 the other social insects. No comb either of wax or of " paper " 

 is made, nor are the larvae reared in cells ; but a complicated 



FlG. 5. Diagram of nest of the red wood-ant. A, main galleries ; B, heaped-up 

 fir-needles, twigs, etc. ; P, " nurseries " at ends of side galleries. 



system of galleries and chambers is excavated in the soil, or in 

 decayed wood (Lasius fuliginosus), and in these the eggs and 

 young are kept in clusters and moved by the workers from 

 chamber to chamber as moisture, temperature and other physical 

 requirements demand. In addition to the subterranean passages 

 there are often extensive heaps of earth or of pine-needles, etc., 

 above the surface ; these also are penetrated by winding galleries. 



