SIB J. LrBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 385 



understand how the ants can hare learnt to produce queens and 

 workers from one kind of egg, the same difficulty exists almost to 

 the same extent in bees, which, as Mr. Dewitz admits, do possess 

 the power. Moreover, it seems to me very unlikely that the result 

 is produced in one way in the case of bees, and in another in that 

 of ants. It is also a strong argument that in all my nests, though 

 thousands of workers and males have been produced, I have never 

 observed a queen to be so until this year. On the whole, then, 

 though I differ from so excellent a naturalist with much hesita- 

 tion, I cannot but think that ants, like bees, possess the power of 

 developing a given egg into either a queen or a worker. 



Affection and Kindness. 



While I was watching one of my nests of Formica fusca on the 

 23rd of January last (1881), I perceived a poor ant lying on her 

 back and quite unable to move. The legs were in cramped atti- 

 tudes, and the two antennae rolled up in spirals. She was, of 

 course, altogether unable to feed herself. After this I kept my eye 

 on her. Several times I tried uncovering the part of the nest where 

 she was. The other ants soon carried her into the shaded part. 

 On the 4th March the ants were all out of the nest, probably for 

 fresh air, and had collected together in a corner of the box ; they 

 had not, however, forgotten her, but had carried her with them. 

 I took off the glass lid of the box, and after a while they returned 

 as usual to the nest, taking her in again. On the 5th March she 

 was still alive ; but on 15th, notwithstanding all their care, she 

 was dead. 



Longevity of Ants. 

 In my previous paper I have called attention to the consi- 

 derable age attained by my ants ; and I may perhaps be per- 

 mitted to repeat here, mutatis mutandis, a paragraph from my last 

 communication with reference to my most aged specimens, most 

 of those mentioned last year being still alive. One of my nests 

 of I'ormica fusca was brought from the woods in December 1874*. 

 It then contained two queens, both of which are now still alive. 

 I am disposed to think that some of the workers now in the nest 

 were among those originally captured, the mortality after the first 

 few weeks having been but small. This, of course, I cannot prove. 

 The queens, however, are certainly seven, and probably eight, 



* They are still alive and well, Sept. 25, 1881. 



