CHAPTER I. 
OX THE FORMATION AND MAINTENANCE OF NESTS, AND 
ON THE DIVISION OF LABOUR. 
Iris remarkable that notwithstanding the researches of 
so many excellent observers, and though ants’ nests 
swarm in every field and every wood, we did not know 
how their nests commence. 
Three principal modes have been suggested. After 
the marriage-flight the young queen may either— 
1. Join her own or.some other old nest ; 
2. Associate herself with a certain number of 
workers, and with their assistance commence a new 
nest ; or 
3. Found a new nest by herself. 
The question can of course only be settled by ob- 
servation, and the experiments made to determine it 
had hitherto been indecisive. 
Blanchard, indeed, in his work on the ‘ Metamor- 
phoses of Insects’ (I quote from Dr. Duncan’s transla- 
tion, p. 205), says :—‘ Huber observed a solitary female 
go down into a small under-ground hole, take off her 
own wings, and become, as it were, a worker; then she 
constructed a small nest, laid a few eggs, and broght 
