SOCIAL INSECTS II5 
capability of doing certain things on impulse when appropriate 
occasions present themselves; but since individual ants profit 
largely by experience, we may also say without hesitation that 
many of their actions are intelligent. There can be little doubt 
that young workers receive a practical education in their duties, 
learning by example if not by precept. If so, we have a very 
convincing proof of marked intelligence. “Where, as in some 
tropical ants, there are numerous castes, the mental life of the 
community is probably more complex, but comparatively few 
observations have been made on this difficult subject. 
The early stages in the formation of societies have been ob- 
served in some species, and are probably substantially the same in 
all. A foundress queen lays her first batch of eggs, and carefully 
tends the larvee when they hatch out, until they pass into the pupa 
stage, from which they emerge as workers, who at once concern 
themselves with the industrial work of the young community. 
The queen is therefore soon able, as in the ordinary social wasps 
and bees, to restrict herself solely to the duty of egg-laying. One 
important point in the domestic economy of all ant-societies may 
here be mentioned. Special cells of paper or wax are not con- 
structed for the reception of eggs, as in Bees and Wasps, but these 
are deposited in chambers, variously situated, according to the 
species. It is further to be noted that the larva may or may not 
spin a cocoon before passing into the pupa state. When a cocoon 
is made it is removed by the workers at the proper time, so as to 
facilitate the escape of the perfect insect. 
There is a large amount of variation as to the number of 
individuals contained in an ant-society. This is very large in most 
of the kinds which have been carefully studied, and it is naturally 
so in cases where the social life is very complex. Simple instances 
are afforded by some of the Indian Ants (species of Polyrhachis), 
where a single queen and less than a dozen workers live together 
in a little one-chambered dwelling that looks almost like a minia- 
ture bird’s-nest, and is constructed of a papery substance with a 
lining of silk. These small homes are found on leaves, and are 
commonly so placed or made as to be inconspicuous. Another 
sort of Asiatic Ant (Zcophylla smaragdina) lives in larger com- 
munities upon foliage, of which the leaves are converted into 
dwellings in a very remarkable manner. The workers roll them 
up and fix their edges together by means of a viscid fluid derived 
