36i AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



the head remained attached, it contrived previously to ex- 

 piring to carry off ten of these white masses into the inte- 

 rior of the nest ! You will readily divine that these attrac- 

 tive objects are the young of the ants in one of the first or 

 imperfect states. They are in fact not the eggs, as they are 

 vulgarly called, but the pupae, which the working ants tend 

 with the most patient assiduity. But I must give you a 

 more detailed account of their operations, beginning with 

 the actual eggs* 



These, which are so small as to be scarcely visible to 

 the naked eye, as soon as deposited by the queen ant, who 

 drops them at random in her progress through the nest, 

 are taken charge of by the workers, who immediately seize 

 them and carry them in their mouths, in small parcels, 

 incessantly turning them backwards and forwards with 

 their tongue for the purpose of moistening them, without 

 which they would come to nothing. They then lay them 

 in heaps, which they place in separate apartments a , and 

 constantly tend until hatched into larvae ; frequently in 

 the course of the day removing them from one quarter of 

 the nest to another, as they require a wanner or cooler, 

 a moister or drier atmosphere ; and at intervals brooding 

 over them as if to impart a genial warmth b . Experiments 

 have been made to ascertain whether these assiduous 

 nurses could distinguish their eggs if intermixed with 

 particles of salt and sugar, which to an ordinary observer 

 they very much resemble ; but the result was constantly in 

 favour of the sagacity of the ants. They invariably se- 

 lected the eggs from whatever materials they were mixed 

 with, and re-arranged them as before . 



- 1 Huber, 69. h De Geer, ii. 1099. c Gould, 37, 



