ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 63 



and that owing to the mixture of the various swarms it 

 seems almost impossible that each female should find her 

 way back to her own nest on returning to earth : and the 

 more so that the behavior of the workers described by him 

 manifests the attainment of a defined and very important 

 object. They have all they want in the queens which have 

 become such under their direct oversight and co-operation, 

 and they need no others. These are cared for, cleaned, 

 brushed, nourished, and nursed through their egg-laying, in 

 the best fashion.* 



Each queen has generally a suite of ten or more workers, 

 which are constantly busied about her, and take every 

 imaginable care of her and her eggs. But this is not the 

 case always nor with all species. Forel noticed that in the 

 genus Leptothorax, the queens live like the workers, but are 

 less skilful at work. Other species give their queens the 

 best and largest cell in the nest, and are so attached even to 

 her corpse that it is difficult to tear them away from it. The 

 greatest care for the queens was observed by Forel to be 

 bestowed upon them by the Lasii. Here they are always 

 surrounded by a number of workers, which follow them 

 everywhere, and often so cover them with their bodies as to 

 render them completely invisible, while they also feed them and 

 gather the eggs laid by them. 1 he queens appear to exist for the 

 sake of the workers, so that they are wrongly called "queens," 

 and, indeed, in a Republic this could not be otherwise. 

 Their queenly dignity appears to consist less in command 

 than in obedience, and the care and attention which is. 

 showered upon them is less for their own sake than for that 

 of their young. 



* A very well informed critic of the Dutch translation of this work, 

 writing in the " Groniger Deekblad " of June 16, 1877, considers that 

 the above views of Forel are contradicted by the fact that in such case 

 the described swarming would be objectless. He thinks, on the con- 

 trary, having regard to the injurious effects of in-breeding, that it 

 is of the greatest importance to the ants "not to keep the colony pure, 

 but to have an infusion of fresh blood." He regards the fertile females 

 which have not left the colony, and which, according to him, are only 

 fertilised after the bridal flight, as a kind of reserve corps to which the 

 workers resort only in case of need and if they fail to secure any 

 returning queens. They are only the exceptions, while the swarming 

 females are the rule. The Termites, according to him, (and this will 

 have exact mention later,) have such a reserve corps. 



