406 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY chap. 



two grooved pieces forming a sheath; but these are not 

 developed in Lasius, though the poison - gland, usually 

 correlated with such a sting, is large, and opens near the 

 tip of the abdomen. Worker ants, like worker bees, 

 appear to be imperfectly developed females ; the ovaries are 

 present though reduced, and eggs are occasionally laid which, 

 although not fertilised, usually develop parthenogenetically 

 into male ants, though recent observations show that this 

 is not always so.^ 



The queen is much larger than the workers and 

 Quee^* is of a dark-brown colour (Fig. 309, c). Her life is 

 generally much longer than theirs, extending to 

 seven or eight years, while they probably die after two or 

 three years. The thorax of the queen bears two pairs of 

 membranous wings when she is young, though she loses them 

 when she settles down at the head of a colony. Her gaster 

 is relatively larger, her eyes and antennae are bigger than 

 in the workers, and she has, besides the two compound eyes, 

 three simple eyes arranged in a triangle in the centre of her 

 head, as in the worker Wood Ant (Fig. 310). 



The male ants are also winged, but are smaller 

 Male'^ts ^^ body even than the workers. They have, how- 

 ever, relatively larger eyes and antennae, but 

 smaller jaws. They only appear in the summer, and do not 

 return after the marriage flight to the nest from which they 

 came; they are, therefore, only to be found in the nest during 

 a short period. 



In the early summer, when no males exist, the 

 Nest queen may be found surrounded by workers, who 

 stroke her with their antennae and lick her with 

 their tongues, whilst she stays motionless, or merely responds 

 to their caresses by crossing antennae with those nearest her. 

 At other times, she will walk about the nest dropping minute 

 white eggs, which are at once picked up and carried off by 

 some of her attendants. Sometimes an ant who has been 

 out foraging for food will approach her, and, regurgitating 

 from her own crop the liquid food she has swallowed, will 

 offer it to the queen on her tongue. 



The eggs are very small, white, oblong bodies about -^V 

 of an inch long; they are carried off by the workers 

 1 W. M. Wheeler, Ants, p. 71. 



