AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 309 



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 so- 

 ciety 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 se- 

 parate 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 nutriment ; but still, when we consider that 

 they must not be neglected, that the older brood demand inces- 

 sant 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 

 working 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 

 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. ^ After the young grubs have attained their full 

 growth, they surround themselves with a silken cocoon and 

 become pupcB, which, food excepted, require as much atten- 

 tion 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 of a 

 passing animal, in addition to all these daily and hourly avo- 

 cations is superadded the immediate necessity of collecting 

 the pupae from the earth with which they have been mixed, 

 and of restoring the nest to its pristine state. ^ 



1 Huber, 78. 



2 The Russian shepherds ingeniously avail themselves of the attachment of 



X 3 



