286 
POISONOUS INSECTS 
Among insects there are few, if any, whose habits are more inter¬ 
esting than those of ants. They live in large communities; build 
houses; they make roads; some of them keep other insects, just as we 
keep cows; and some of them even have slaves. 
No two species of ants have the same habits; and on various 
accounts their mode of life is far from easy to unravel. Most of their 
time is passed underground; all the tending of the young, for instance, 
is carried on in the dark. 
The life of an ant falls into four well-marked periods—those of 
the egg, of the larva or grub, of the pupa or chrysalis and of the perfect 
insect or imago. The eggs are white or yellowish, and somewhat 
elongated. They are generally said to be hatched about fifteen days 
after being laid. 
The larvae or grubs of ants, like those of bees and wasps, are 
small, white, legless creatures, somewhat conical in form, narrowing 
towards the head. 
In the case of ants, as with other insects which pass through 
similar changes of form—such as bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, flies, 
beetles, etc.—the larval stage is the period of growth. During the 
chrysalis stage though immense changes take place, and the organs 
of the insect are more or less rapidly developed, no food is taken, and 
there is no addition to size or weight. 
The imago or perfect insect again takes food, but does not grow. 
The ant, like all the insects above named, is as large when it emerges 
from the pupa as it ever will be, though the abdomen of the female 
sometimes increases in size from the development of the eggs. 
Some ants have a sting; some bite with their jaws, and then 
squirt poison into the wound. Indeed, in some cases, the poison is 
sufficiently strong itself to cause a wound. Moreover, some species 
have the power of ejecting their poison to a considerable distance. 
Under ordinary circumstances an ants’ nest, like a beehive, con¬ 
tains three kinds of individuals, workers or imperfect females (which 
constitute the great majority), males and perfect females. There are 
often, however, several queens in an ants’ nest; while, as we all know, 
there is never more than one queen mother in a hive. The queens of 
ants are provided with wings, but after a single flight they tear them 
