Katui'e and Art, April 1, 186? 1 .] 
ANTS AND APHIDES, 
123 
alone provided with, wings, and this is why there is such a 
general impression that tlie ant is wingless. The body in all 
cases is borne upon three pairs of slender limbs, the antonnm 
or feelers are jointed, and have great freedom of motion. 
The mandibles or jaws are horny and powerful, and serve as 
teeth and weapons of offence. The males are somewhat 
larger than the workers, and the females are of greater size 
even than the males. Their larvm, or young, when in the 
caterpillar condition, spin a delioate silken envelope forming 
tho coooon. Finally, to complete the general characters of 
our ant, it is not provided with a sting as is generally 
supposed, but is oapable of secreting a pungent and acid 
fluid, known as formic aoid, whioh it drops into the little 
wound inflicted by its scissor-like jaws, thus producing a 
considerable deal of itohing or formication (formica, an ant), 
as it is termed. The worker ants, which are both sexless 
and wingless, are those whioh engage in all the important 
labours undertaken by the colony. The male and female are 
alone concerned with tho production of the young ; they may 
bo seen in great numbers, in the neighbourhood of ant-hills, 
towards the end of the summer; when they have completed 
must look as exhibiting the qualities of insects to which we 
have already referred. It is they who construct the ant- 
hill, guard its various entrances, provide the “lying-in” 
chambers for the females, take caro of tho eggs till their 
conversion into larvre, and afterwards feed and watch them 
with tho tonderest solicitude, till in course of time winged 
males and females appear, and the period of swarming 
occurs, as in the case of bees. 
Amongthe many remarkable proofs of the ant’s intelligence, 
the construction of its habitation is not the least interesting. 
The ant-hill varies in point of architectural features ac- 
cording to the speoies; but in tho case of the species to 
which we have alluded (Formica rufa), it assumes the 
typical shape, and presents itself as a little hill or mound 
rising some inches above the surface. It is composed of all 
sorts of debris which the ant finds in its chosen spot, — bits 
of wood, fragments of leaves, grains of corn, pieces of other 
inseots’ skeletons, little bits of broken straw, and such-like. 
But this elevation is really only a portion of the ant-city, 
which extends to a certain depth into the soil. If we make 
a careful cutting through an ant-hill, we shall see hundreds 
of channels or avenues tunnelled through the ground, 
and communicating with each other, and with those 
which traverse the dome-shaped portion of the habi- 
tation (see figure). The external apertures of these 
galleries are very large, but they are carefully bar- 
ricaded during the night, and on wet days, and are 
thrown open in fine weather. At first these domi- 
ciles consist of a single channel hollowed in the 
earth, but gradually the number increases. The 
wor7cer-ants tunnel away unceasingly, and carry out 
the excavated earth in the form of little pellets, till 
at length a complete labyrinth is formed, corridors, 
chambers, and halls, often communicating by means 
of vertical passages, make their appearance, and 
finally we behold a large central chamber supported 
by rude pillars of earth, and into which the several 
passages lead. It is in this latter that we find most 
of the ants when we open an ant-hill. Generally these 
hills measure from about a foot to a foot and a half 
high, and are equally broad ; and some writers who 
take a higher view of the ant’s intelligence than we 
do, look upon them as true fortresses in which- each 
tunnel has a distinct and foreseen relation to its 
fellows, which are defended by various ingenious 
devices of construction, and which are always care- 
fully guarded. 
Wo come now to another page in the history of 
these insects, — to that which describes the production 
and nursing of the young. The females, who usually 
occupy a special part of the colony, seem, contrary 
to the views of those who slander the gentler sex, to 
live together in the most perfect harmony. In course 
of time they lay a number of extremely minute, white, 
spherical eggs, and with this operation end their 
duties to the colony. To the workers is consigned 
tho important labour of incubating the eggs, and 
rearing and nursing the young. They take charge 
of the ova the moment they are laid, and remove 
them to chambers specially arranged for their recep- 
tion. A certain amount of warmth is required for 
the development of the eggs into larvae, and this is 
procured by removing the ova in fine weather from 
the cells, in which they have been detained, into the 
open air. There they are exposed to the sun’s rays 
— care being taken that too high a temperature is not 
imparted to them — for some time, and then the 
ever-active workers remove them to the nurseries. 
It is this process we see going on in summer time 
when we disturb an ant-hill. Myriads of the busy little 
insects ;may be seen rushing about laden with little white 
grain-like bodies, of which they take the greatest care, 
and eventually succeed in carrying beneath the surface. 
These white, grain-like bodies are the larvm, and as some 
of the earlier observers fancied they were grains of cereals, 
seeds, and such-like, the ant acquired a reputation for 
thriftiness and providence which it certainly does not 
deserve. In about fifteen days the eggs are hatched, and 
SECTION OF AN ANT-HILL. 
their metamorphoses, they leave the colony, and flying into 
the air, perform the functions allotted to them ; the males 
thereupon ceasing to exist, and tho impregnated females 
dropping their wings and returning to the original colony, 
or forming a new one, and depositing the ova in a place 
prepared for the purpose. But it is to the workers that we 
