THE INSECT WORLD. 



391 



trades and professions are represented. We find communities 

 governed in some directions despotically by a queen, yet at the 

 same time forming the most perfect republic, in which every indi- 

 vidual has its rights firmly established and absolutely beyond the 

 control of the nominal head of the colony. We have organiza- 

 tions that make war, keep slaves, lay in stores, and provide for 

 contingencies ; they seem able to forecast the future in some 

 directions and intelligently provide for it. In other words, they 

 offer some of the most interesting problems that can possibly be 

 studied. It is unnecessary to waste words in describing the ap- 

 pearance of an ant, and it need only be said that all the true 

 ants are distinguished from the other Hymenoptera by the posses- 

 sion of one or more scales or nodes on the petiole or stalk of the 

 abdomen. We find also, in this series, the development of what 

 are known as "neuters," or workers, —that is to say, female indi- 

 viduals in which the sexual characters are not perfected, which 

 are incapable of reproduction, and whose function in the nest is 

 simply to perform the mechanical labor necessary to keep up the 

 colony. These workers have no wings, and in their appearance 

 and tlie relative proportion of the parts they frequently differ 

 considerably from their parents. There are sometimes several 

 forms of workers found in nests, differing from each other in the 

 development of certain parts for special purposes, but attention 

 will be called to these hereafter, where necessary. Though the 

 ants agree in their general habits and peculiar social organization, 

 yet no less than five different families have been recognized, 

 based upon structural characters, principally of the abdomen and 

 head. 



The most numerous in species of these families, containing 

 most of our common forms, is the Formicidcs, in which the 

 petiole is formed of a single joint only, and the abdomen is 

 smooth, without constriction between the segments. In this 

 family the "queens," or females, have no sting. They build 

 their nests in all sorts of localities. We find them commonly in 

 our fields; often in woods, where the large black "carpenter 

 ants' ' are the most prominent ; while some occur under stones 

 or around the roots of trees. It would be easy to write a book 

 on ants alone, but necessarily our notes of them must be con- 

 fined here to the features of economic importance. And first 



