CHAPTER XXVI 

 INSECTA (continued) 

 Order VII. : Hymenoptera (continued) 

 Family 6 : Ants (Fori) 



The ordered lives of the communities of the 

 to Bees, lioney bee, and other social bees, are wonderful 



for their almost ceaseless activity, for the mathe- 

 matical precision with which the brood-comb and honey- 

 comb are formed by the workers, for their industry in collect- 

 ing nectar for present and future use, for the strange and 

 utter absorption of the queen, the only mother in the hive, 

 in the work of egg-laying, and for the untiring care of the 

 young by the workers. In fact, we can only marvel at the 

 wonderful instincts which make up the " spirit of the hive," 

 and which have brought this communal life to so great a 

 degree of perfection. 



Nevertheless, the lives of these bees are limited in many 

 directions. They have to spend much of their energy in 

 constructing their combs of wax, their food is very restricted, 

 and is not to be found in the winter, when they are 

 dependent on their stores — and to store sufficient food 

 means hard work during the summer. In consequence their 

 lives show little variation from the almost automatic round 

 of cell-making, brood-rearing, and food-getting, and the lives 

 of the workers are short as well as strenuous, rarely lasting for 

 more than twelve months, and often for a much shorter time. 

 Ants also live in large communities, but they 



have simplified to some extent the material side 

 of their lives, their homes in the earth are far simpler, and 

 VOL. I 401 2d 



