AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 207 
New and more severe labours succeed the birth of the young grubs 
which are disclosed from the eggs after a few days. The working ants are 
now almost without remission engaged in supplying their wants and’ for- 
warding their growth, Every evening an hour before sunset they regularly 
remove the whole brood, as well as the eggs and pupz, which in an old 
nest all require attention at the same time, to cells situated lower down in 
the earth, where they will be safe from the cold ; and in the morning they 
as constantly remoye them again towards the surface of the nest. If, 
however, there is a prospect of cold or wet weather, the provident ants 
forbear on that day transporting their young from the inner cells, aware 
that their tender frames are unable to withstand an inclement sky. What 
is particularly worthy of notice in this herculean task, the ants constantly 
regulate their proceedings by the sun, removing their young according to the 
earlier or later rising and setting of that luminary. As soon as his first rays 
begin to shine on the exterior of the nest, the ants that are at the top go 
below in great haste to rouse their companions, whom they strike with 
their antennze, or, when they do not seem to comprehend them, drag with 
their jaws to the summit, till a swarm of busy labourers fill every passage. 
These take up the laryae and pupz, which they hastily transport to the 
upper part of their habitation, where they leave them a quarter of an hour, 
and then carry them into apartments where they are sheltered from the 
sun’s direct rays.' 
Severe as this constant and unremitted daily labour seems, it is but a 
small part of what the affection of the working ants leads them readily to 
undertake. The feeding 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 
1s 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 re- 
quiring separate attention, and that the observations of Huber make it 
probable 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 nutri- 
ment; but still, when we consider that they must not be neglected, that 
the older brood demand incessant supplies, and in a well stocked nest 
amount to 7000 or 8000, and that the task of satisfying all these cravings, 
as well as providing for their own subsistence, falls to the lot of the work- 
ing ants, we are almost ready to regard the burden 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 larve 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.? After the young grubs have attained their 
full growth, they surround themselves with a silken cocoon and become 
pupe, which, food excepted, require as much attention as in the larva 
State, Every morning they are transported from the bottom of the nest 
to the surface, and every evening returned to their former quarters. And 
if, as is often the case, the nest be thrown into ruins by the unlucky foot 
1 Huber, 74 ® Ibid. 78. 
