634 THE STUDY OF INSECTS. 



of poor human attempts, and go and study thoroughly the 

 nearest ant-hill. There he will find no love for friend or 

 wife or child, but a love for everyone. There everything is 

 done for the good of the whole, and nothing for the indi- 

 vidual. The state makes wars, provides food for all, cares 

 for the children, owns all the property. He will find no 

 complaint against the existing condition of society, no 

 rebels ; but the fate of each one is determined by the acci- 

 dent of birth, and each takes up its work without a murmur. 

 He will find that this perfect commune has developed 

 courage, patriotism, loyalty, and never-failing industry; but 

 he will find also that war, pillage, slavery, and an utter dis- 

 regard of the rights of other communities and individuals 

 are as prevalent as they are among our own nations, where 

 selfish private ambition has held sway so' long. 



There are always three classes of ants in a colony : males, 

 females, and workers. The males and the females are winged, 

 the workers wingless. Often in w^arm summer afternoons 

 the air will seem to be filled with countless thousands of 

 flying ants. Their moving wings divide the sun's rays into 

 rainbow flashes as they rise or fall, a silent, onward-moving 

 host. This is the wedding-journey of the male and female 

 ants, which have come from many communities and have 

 taken flight together. But soon the journey is over and 

 they drop to earth, where the males soon die ; but the 

 females tear off their own wings, having no further use for 

 them, and set about to find places to lay their eggs. Some- 

 times a female starts a new colony; in other cases she is 

 focnd by some workers of her own species and adopted as 

 their queen. 



Comparatively little is known regarding the formation of 

 new colonies of ants. It has been a question whether a 

 colony is founded by a single queen working alone, as with 

 the bumblebees and social wasps; or whether a queen asso- 

 ciates a number of workers with herself and they together 

 found the colony, as with the Honey-bee. The writer has 



