76 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



feed them, carry them about during weather changes, 

 escape with them or fight for them if attacked by 

 enemies, and often show a species of attention that 

 has an amusing resemblance to the dandling of an 

 infant by a young mother. The ant children are 

 often assorted according to age and size, reminding 

 one of the class divisions in a schoolroom." 



"When these baby ants pass the second period of 

 their existence, during which they are called larvae, 

 they either spin a whitish or light yellow cocoon (and 

 it is sometimes these, as well as the larvae, that are 

 mistaken for ants' eggs), shutting themselves up in it, 

 or else they sink into a deep sleep just as they are. 



In doing this they enter upon the third stage of an 

 ant's life, and are called pupae, during which time they 

 take no food. "When they are ready to awaken again, 

 which they do in the perfect and mature form of ants, 

 the nurses, who have never left them a moment, 

 know it, and help them out of their cocoons, and out 

 of their old skins as well, and unfold their legs — you 

 vdll remember they had none before — and smooth out 

 the wings of the young queens and the male ants, that 

 are the only kinds born with wings. 



The winged ants do not delight in work as do the 

 others, who are called workers. They are taken care 

 of by the workers, looked after, fed, and cleaned like 

 big babies. Sometimes they are free to go out of 

 doors and run about a little, but are then carefully 

 guarded, and not allowed far from the nest. 



At last, however, a time comes when they must go 

 away and seek their fortunes, must be fathers and 



