148 



ARTHROPODS: INSECTS. 



window, with a ball of mud in her mouth, she moved 

 quickly around the room, then flew up to the spot 

 where she was building, and de- 

 positing her mud, shaped it with 

 her jaws with all the care and 

 regularity of a perfect mason. 

 The day after she finished the 

 first cell, she filled it with spiders 

 and sealed it o\'er with mud. On 

 ■ Mud Wasp's opening it to examine the insects 

 "'^^'- stored within, quite a large hole 



was accidentally made ; this she very soon discovered, 

 and began to repair it, and in about five minutes she 

 had completely closed it. The second cell was soon 

 sealed like the first. Fig. 258 shows them, as they 

 appeared before the second was filled with spiders and 

 closed. 



Ants. 



Fig. 258. 



Ants live together in colonies, which are often very 

 large, and made up of males, females, and workers. 

 The workers ha\e no wings, but the males and females 

 ha\'e -^vings, and the females ha\'e the power of throw- 

 ing them off. Some kinds of Ants make their nests in 

 the ground ; others raise large ant-hills ; and others 

 li\'e in stumps and trunks of trees. The workers take 

 care of the nest and rear the young; they go abroad 

 in search of food, communicate with and assist each 

 other, feed the larva;, take them into the sunshine in 

 fair weather and back again on the approach of a 

 storm or at night, and watch o\er them earnestly and 

 faithfully. .\nts are fond of sweet things, and some 

 obtain such food from the secretion of aphides, or 



