366 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



working ants leads them readily to undertake. The feed- 

 ing of the young brood, which rests solely upon them, is 

 a more serious charge. The nest is constantly stored 

 with larvae the year round, during all which time, except 

 in winter when the whole society is torpid, they require 

 feeding several times a day with a viscid half-digested, 

 fluid that the workers disgorge into their mouths, which 

 when hungry they stretch out to meet those of their nurses. 

 Add to which, that in an old nest there are generally two 

 distinct broods of different ages requiring separate atten- 

 tion ; and that the observations of Huber make it proba- 

 ble that at one period they require a more substantial 

 food than at another. It is true that the youngest brood 

 at first want but little nutriment : but still, when we con- 

 sider that they must not be neglected, that the older brood 

 demand incessant supplies, and in a well stocked nest 

 amount to 7 or 8000 ; and that the task of satisfying all 

 these cravings, as well as providing for their own subsist- 

 ence, falls to the lot of the working ants, we are almost 

 ready to regard the burthen as greater than can be borne 

 by such minute agents ; and we shall not wonder at the 

 incessant activity with which we see them foraging on 

 every side. 



Their labour does not end here. It is necessary that 

 the larvae should be kept extremely clean ; and for this 

 purpose the ants are perpetually passing their tongue and 

 mandibles over their body, rendering them by this means 

 perfectly white 3 . After the young grubs have attained 

 their full growth, they surround themselves with a silken 

 cocoon and become pupae, which, food excepted, require 

 a Huber, 78. 



