BEES, ANTS, AND WASPS. 53 



and packed in the coll. Sometimes ten or fifteen spi- 

 ders, all paralyzed, are packed into one cell. Even if 

 they should die, as they must after awhile, the preserva- 

 tive effect of the formic acid is sufficient to keep the 

 bodies from decay. The egg is then laid, and the nest 

 sealed up. The wasp larva hatches, eats the food 

 prepared in advance for it, and finally breaks out of 

 its mud cell a mature wasp. The solitary wasps have 

 only two kinds of individuals, male and female. 



In some respects, the ants represent the highest 

 degree of insect intelligence. Not only have they the 

 same three classes in a colony that the bees and wasps 

 have, but in some cases there is a fourth class, the 

 soldiers, whose only business is to fight, defending the 

 nest or attacking other colonies. It has long been 

 known that certain kinds of ants make forays upon 

 the nests of other kinds, whose larvse they carry off 

 and rear in their own nests to serve as slaves. It is 

 also known that certain ants keep in their nests and 

 care for certain plant lice which secrete a sweet liquid 

 much appreciated by the ants. Such plant lice are 

 called ants' cows. Other insects are found in ants' 

 nests, and we are unable to account for their presence 

 except by likening them to our own domestic animals. 



The agricultural ant of Texas is known to clear 

 off a piece of ground from 6 to 8 feet in diameter, 

 keep down the weeds, allowing a kind of grass known 

 as ant rice to grow, gather the grains of rice when 

 they are ripe, store them away in granaries, and bring 

 them out to dry when they get wet. It has not been 

 seen to plant the rice, but some people believe that it 

 does so. 



The leaf-cutting ant of Central America is known 

 to cut pieces of leaves and carry them into a nest, 

 where they ferment and form a hotbed in which 

 springs up a kind of fungus that furnishes the princi- 

 pal food of the ants. 



