326 



THE WONDER OF LIFE 



The Ant-Hill. — When we look at an ant-hill with its 

 multitudes and their industry — ^without haste and without 

 rest — ^we feel at once that the spectacle before us is very 

 different from that presented by the 

 crowd of mites in an old cheese. It is 

 not a mere association of huge numbers, 

 it is a community. 



Let us look into the 

 matter more closely. 



The ant community 

 shows division of 

 labour. Besides the queens or mothers 

 and the males, there is, as every one 

 knows, the throng of workers — females 

 by nature, who do not normally 

 become reproductive. There is often 

 considerable difference in structure 

 between queen, male and worker ; and 

 then we speak of polymorphism. More- 

 over, there may be several castes of 

 workers discharging different tasks — 

 foraging, nursing, fighting, and so on. 

 And there may be polymorphism 

 among the workers. Thus, Bates 

 described among the leaf-cutting ants, 

 (1) the ordinary workers with rela- 

 tively small heads, (2) officer-like 

 individuals with large bald heads, and 

 (3) another type with a twin simple-eye 

 in the middle of the forehead — ^three 

 forms different from one another within 

 one species. 



Fig. 54. — Leaf-out- 

 ting ants at work, 

 Atta disoigera. a, 

 an ant without a 

 burden ; L, an ant 

 with a leaf ; s, an 

 ant with a piece 

 of stem. (After 

 Moeller.) 



