34 
NATURE NOTES 
which the great bulk of them perish. The males soon cease to 
exist ; but the females, after they have shed or torn off their own 
wings (and should they be sufficiently fortunate to return to a 
nest of their own species), set about the establishment of new 
colonies and become the future mothers of the community, 
devoting all their energies to egg-laying. The eggs, which are 
produced in extraordinary numbers by the usually solitary queen 
mother, are very minute, oval, whitish objects, and are cared for 
by the workers, the young larvae being fed in very much the 
same way as in colonies of bees, specially the common hive-bee. 
The so-called “ ant eggs,” in popular phraseology, are not eggs 
at all, but the white larvae and pupae, and if of females or males, 
these are much larger than the larvae or pupae of workers, and 
many times larger than the true eggs of the ant. 
We have no space here to discuss the various habits of ants, 
but those who are interested and would like to learn something 
about their agriculture and cattle, wars and slave-raids, &c., 
will find ample information in the works of Lubbock, M’Cook, 
and others. 
As a house species the red ant is practically cosmopolitan, 
so much so that its exact origin is unknown. It may be said, 
however, to have become thoroughly domesticated, and nesting 
now habitually in the walls of houses or beneath flooring, is often 
difficult to eradicate. In fact, unless we can follow the workers 
back to their point of disappearance and can there locate and 
reach the colony and destroy it, all other measures will be of 
only temporary avail. If the colony is located in a wall the 
inmates of the nest may sometimes be reached by injecting 
bisulphide of carbon or a little kerosene. 
The little black ant is not strictly a house species, though it 
frequently comes indoors and becomes quite as troublesome as 
any other ant. Its colonies usually occur under stones near the 
house and are frequently found in the fields, and will be recog- 
nised from the little pyramids of fine grains of soil which 
surround the entrances. When this ant appears in a house it 
can often be traced to its outdoor colony, and the destruction of 
this will prevent further trouble. 
Sometimes the common meadow ant will find its way into 
the house, and, when it does, it is often a more persistent and 
pestilent house nuisance than the rest of its kind. It manifests 
a great fondness for sweets, and as it is said that these ants have 
in a marked degree the ability of communicating with one 
another ; if an explorer discovers something good in a house, 
the colony in the meadow are soon on the trail. This ant, how- 
ever, may be traced to its nest often with little difficulty, and 
can be rather easily exterminated. Drenching the nests with 
boiling water is an effective means of abating the nuisance of 
this ant. 
Whenever the nests of any of these ants cannot be located 
there is no other resource than the temporary expedient of 
