TR AC HE AT A 381 



As a rule, the males are smaller than the females. They 

 live in communities, which comprise, besides the winged males 

 and females, a number of wingless workers or neuters. These 



1 



Fig. 214. — Formica rufa (Wood-ant). 

 1. Female. 2. Male. 3. Neuter. 



are in reality aborted females, and, like the functional indi- 

 viduals of that sex, are provided with poison glands. The 

 poison consists of formic acid, and is ejected into wounds made 

 either by the sting or the biting mandibles. Some of the 

 workers, as is the case in the Termites, are specialised as 

 " soldiers " with very formidable jaws and large heads. These 

 defend the ant-hills when they are attacked. 



The workers or neuters survive the whole year, hibernating 

 during the winter months. Some of the females also may 

 hibernate, but the greater number of both males and females 

 live for a short time only, during the summer. No food is 

 stored up in the ant nest ov formicarium for winter consump- 

 tion, as those individuals which persist through the cold 

 weather become torpid and cease to feed. With the return of 

 spring the females which have persisted lay eggs, and these, or 

 in some species the eggs and larvae of the preceding autumn 

 which have lasted through the winter, develope into a new 

 brood, producing males, females, and workers. The larvae are 

 most carefully tended by the workers, which feed them with 

 semi-digested food from their own stomachs. The sexes pair 

 whilst flying in the air ; the males then die, the females cast 

 their wings and either start off to form a new colony or are 

 led back by the workers to the old. The ova are very small. 

 The structures which are commonly called the eggs of the 

 ants are the white oval cocoons. 



The nests are usually excavated in the ground or in a 



