hymenoptera. 173 



Ants (Hetbrogyna). 



The Formicidce or Ants are provided with strong mandibles 

 for biting, the maxillse and labium normal. All ants are social, 

 living in colonies composed of workers, males, and females. 

 The workers are always apterous ; they are undeveloped females, 

 and are often peculiarly modified for different purposes : some 

 act as soldiers, others as labourers, and yet others as " nurses " 

 for the brood. The males and females have wings. The abdo- 

 men, which is provided with a powerful poisonous sting, is 

 united to the thorax by a one-jointed stalk in the genus Formica, 

 by a two-jointed stalk in Myrmica. Those with the two-jointed 

 abdominal-thoracic stalk are provided with a sting and are poison- 

 ous ; but the genus Formica has no sting, yet is nevertheless 

 poisonous. The latter bite, and then squirt the formic poison 

 into the wound. During the greater part of the year a colony 

 of ants consists only of workers, larvae, and pupae ; but in 

 summer winged males and females appear, which wo see flying 

 about on warm days. They pair in the air. When fertilised 

 they fall to the ground ; the wings are then torn off, and 

 the female is borne along by the workers to deposit her eggs in 

 the nest of the colony. Ant grubs are very feeble creatures : 

 they are fed with specially prepared food by the workers, and 

 when mature pupate in the same cells. The pupse of the sting- 

 less ants (Farmica) are in a cocoon ; those of the stinging 

 Myrmica are naked. These cocoons are usually called " ants' 

 eggs,'' and form a valuable food for pheasants and other birds 

 as well as goldfish. The dwellings of ants consist of passages 

 and holes in wood and earth, and also of heaps of earth, pine- 

 needles, and pieces of wood thrown up into hill-like areas. A 

 large number of species are found in Britain, some more or less 

 injurious. The food consists of both animal and vegetable sub- 

 stances. As destroyers of small caterpillars they are certainly 

 beneficial, but they also do much damage. Some form their 

 nests in meadows and cornfields, and render mowing a difficult 



