HOME LIFE IN AN ANT COLONY 
77 
they appear in myriads. Mating nearly always takes place while they 
are on the wing. 
Soon after mating, the males die, and those females that escape 
their enemies settle to the ground, tear off their wings, and make ex¬ 
cavations in materials suitable for the construction of their nest. The 
eggs are then laid, and when the larvae are hatched, they are fed on 
some substance already stored up within the body of the queen—since 
she never goes out for food. 
When the workers of the first set, which are of small size, appear, 
the care of the larvae 1 and pupae is left to them; and thereafter the queen 
devotes herself exclusively to egg-laying. Thus a new colony is estab¬ 
lished. 
The workers appear to be very affectionate toward their queen. 
They feed her and follow her on her wanderings throughout the pas¬ 
sages and chambers. When in her presence they not infrequently per¬ 
form the same peculiar antics and capers that they employ to express 
their emotion upon the return of a lost comrade. 
As the queen produces the eggs, the workers carry them to suit¬ 
able locations. In caring for the legless larvae and pupae, the workers 
carry them to the surface layers by day, for the sake of the sun’s 
warmth, and at night or during rain to deeper and drier chambers. 
The larvae are, fed from the mouths of the nurses, upon a liquid 
secreted or elaborated for this purpose. These nurses carefully lick 
and rub the larvae to keep them clean, and when the time arrives for 
the adults to emerge from the pupae-cases, the workers are at hand to 
help them out and unfold and dry their wings and legs. Then the 
workers must perform the duty of guarding the winged members of 
the colony until a suitable time for them to take their flight. 
The nests, or homes, of ants are very different from those of their 
relatives, the bees and wasps. Instead of building their homes of 
wax or papery pulp, as these latter insects do, ants burrow into the 
ground or into rotting or living trees, shrubs, or herbs. Bees and 
wasps divide their nests into even compartments, or cells; and in each 
cell one egg is laid and one individual is reared. The ant’s nest is made 
up of a variable number of chambers of irregular shape, connected by 
galleries; and the young of ants are kept in heaps and moved around 
from one part of the nest to another, as conditions of temperature 
and moisture demand. 
