258 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



sumes its final shape, lacking only strength and a 

 little firmness. All its members are distinct, but 

 enveloped in a fine membrane which it must strip 

 off to become a perfect insect. 



"If you disturb an ant-hill you will see the workers 

 hastening to carry away and put in a safe place cer- 

 tain cylindrical bodies having somewhat the appear- 

 ance of grains of wheat and very inappropriately 

 called ant-eggs. They are not the eggs of the in- 

 sect, which are in reality much smaller; they are 

 cocoons with their contents, larvae at first, nymphs 

 later. 



"When the time comes for leaving its cocoon, the 

 enclosed ant is unable of itself to gain its freedom 

 by piercing with its mandibles the silken envelope ; 

 it possesses nothing resembling the solvent liquid 

 which the silk- worm holds in reserve in its stomach ; 

 nor has it at the forward end of its prison-cell a door 

 for exit analagous to the curious paling provided for 

 the great peacock-butterfly. It would perish in its 

 silk sack if the working ants did not bestir them- 

 selves for its deliverance. 



"Three or four of these mount the cocoon and 

 strive to open it at the end corresponding to the 

 prisoner's head. They begin by weakening the tex- 

 ture of the sac by tearing away a few threads of silk 

 at the point where the opening is to be made ; then, 

 nipping and twisting the tissue so difficult to break 

 through, they at last succeed in puncturing it with a 

 number of holes near one another, whereupon the 

 mandibles are applied at one of these holes just as 



