208 



SUBKINGDOM AKTICULATA. 



Mg. SSI. 



rl 



workers; those of the latter only males.* Late in the 



anttimn, all die except the 

 large females, which pass 

 the winter in a torpid 

 condition. Awaking in 

 the spring, each sallies 

 forth to seek a convenient 

 place and found a new 

 colony. Within half an ' 

 hour she will make a cell, 

 store it with pollen and 

 honey, and deposit a few 

 eggs. On hatching, the 

 larva eats the pollen, and 

 shapes for itself a cell. 

 Quickly spinning its co- 

 coon, it passes from a pupa 

 to an imago. Meanwhile the queen continues to lay, and, 

 as fast as the workers mature, keeps them busy in aiding her 

 to build new cells and tend the young. 



Formicidse. — The Ants are a numerous family, over one 

 thousand species having been described. The eggs laid by 

 the last brood of females each summer do not hatch till 

 spring, when they are cared for by the workers that alone, 

 as a rule, hibernate. On a hot day, the winged males and 

 females rise into the air in vast numbers, pair,f and then 

 separate, the males to die, and the females to lose their 

 wings, and, entering the ground, found new colonies. 



Bowhus, Humble-bee and cells. 



* The male Hnmble-bees, like those of the Hive-bee, are harmless and may be 

 known by their white faces. The same is true of the Wasps, which form a family, 

 Vespidai of the Hymenoptera. They resemble the Bees in their habits. They do not, 

 however, secrete wax; but scraping wood and plants with their mandibles they 

 manufacture a kind of papier mach6 for building their nests. They thus made paper 

 long before man had learned the art. 



t The winged ants have a strong disposition to desert and found new colonies. 

 The workers, however, are on the watch for this, and their sentinels may occasion- 

 ally be seen dragging back a deserter. Sometimes a party overtaking a queen at a 

 distance from home, do not return but establish a new settlement. The eggs are 

 tended by the queen and the nurses or workers, both egsjs and larvse being brought 

 out into the sun every pleasant day. As they are frequently seen bearing these white- 



