The Ants 



say, there are large workers and small workers which have dii- 

 ferent functions in the community. With the ants this becomes 

 almost the rule and when we consider all ants we find that there 

 may be eight distinct castes, not all in the same individual species, 

 though five may occur in the same species. There are not only 

 the ordinary winged males and the ordinary winged females, the 

 large workers and the small workers (workers major and workers 



minor, as they are termed), but 

 with certain species there is a well 

 developed and well adapted caste 

 which does the principal fighting 

 for the community and which is 

 known as the soldier. The 

 workers, as with the bees, are 

 simply infertile and undeveloped 

 females. They never have wings. 

 ^■^ /i\ /^ Sm ^^\ The true females have wings, but 



1/ after the nuptial flight they are 

 discarded and only at certain 

 times in the year are winged in- 

 dividuals seen in an ant com- 

 munity. The true workers, when 

 examined as to their internal anat- 

 omy, seem to differ principally 

 from the true females in that they 

 lack the receptaculum seminis. 

 There are, however, with certain 

 ants forms which never have 

 wings and which in the female 

 sex possesses a receptaculum 

 f seminis, and there are correspond- 



Fig. 2i.-Cremastogaster lineolata. ™g wingless males, that is, males 

 ( After Mc Cook, ) which never develop wings. 



These are, then, sexually competent males and females, neither 

 of which ever develop wings. This adds two more structural 

 forms to the possible number of forms in a community, and they 

 are called ergatoids. This is a term which will come more fre- 

 quently into use and should be mentioned. It applies to both 

 sexes, but the females are said to be ergatogynous and the males 

 are said to be ergatandrous. The eighth possible form occurs 



38 



