Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/572

540 ANT at Hong Kong. He has published several works, the most important of which are "A Guide to the Laws of England affecting Ro- man Catholics" (1842), and "Guide to the History and Constitution of England." ANT, an insect belonging to the family for- micidce (or formicaries, Latreille), of the sub- order hymenoptera or membranous-winged bi- sects. There are numerous genera and seve- ral hundred species known and described from various parts of the world. Some species have been famed from remote antiquity for the intelligence displayed in their labors. The habits of others are as yet insufficiently studied, or where ascertained exhibit a lower grade of development. Many species, which are com- mon to the temperate regions of both conti- nents, agree in the following respects: they live in communities consisting of hundreds and even thousands of individuals, of which the fertile females are the largest, the males next in size, and the infertile females (commonly termed nurses or workers, and improperly neuters) the smallest. The last, however, in some species are of at least two different sizes, which are respectively known as the soldier or major and the minor worker. These differ especially from the fertile females in the lack of development in the ovaries and wings. All of these forms, however, are hatched from eggs, not observably differing, which are not glued singly to one spot, as in the honey-bee, nor lodged irremovably in cells of clay, as in the case of many wasps, but are scattered about in parcels of three or more, loosely at- tached to each other, so that they can be sep- arated and carried from place to place at pleasure, during the process of hatching. This is during that season the principal duty of the female and of the nurse ants, as it is afterward to do the same by the large cocoons. This transportation of the eggs has, from their re- ~ semblance, led to the erroneous idea that ants lay up grain for winter use; whereas many species never feed at all during the winter, re- maining torpid. The eggs are exposed by the worker, or by the female when alone, to the rays of the sun during the early morning, cov- ered from its too powerful influence during the extreme heat of the day, and removed beyond the influence of cold or wet by night. As soon as the larva or grubs are hatched, they are treated in the same manner. Until their maturity the grubs, which are necessarily vora- cious, since they have not only to take up mate- rial sufficient for their own growth, but for the formation of the substance whence to spin their cocoons, are fed by the nurse ant, or by the female when alone, with a liquid disgorged from the stomach of the parent. When a fe- male has founded her colony alone, she must be at work early and late, in order to collect sustenance sufficient for herself and for the support of the 20 or more greedy grubs. As soon as the grubs have attained maturity, if of those species which are destitute of stings, they generally spin their cocoons, of a membranous texture and a brownish-white color, which considerably resemble barleycorns. The co- coons are treated precisely as were the eggs and the grubs, in their exposure to proper temperature, and their removal from undue extremes of heat or cold, until they are ripe for their second birth, when the young ants are cut out of their cerements by the mandi- bles of the nurse ants. Early in the pairing season, both males and females are to be seen in great numbers in all the ant hills, provided with glistening wings, mixed with the wingless workers, who keep diligent watch over them, posting regular sentries and never allowing them to escape beyond the limits of the colony without a guard, several of whom may at times be observed dragging back a deserter by the limbs. There always seems to be a dis- position among the winged ants to desert the colony, but the workers never accede to this truant disposition, but resist it to the utmost, nor ever yield unless the breeders become too numerous to be fed or guarded by them. The actual copulation does not take place in the ant hills, but at some small distance from them, and not infrequently in mid-air ; and scouts are always on the lookout to drag back the fertil- ized females to the principal settlement, or to form small independent parties, which seize a female and found a colony on their own ac- count. Sometimes it will happen, so great is this propensity to ramble on the part of the females after their impregnation is complete, that an original settlement is wholly deserted, owing to the workers who have gone off* in pursuit, if they have been led too far from home to care about return, forming fresh col- onies in whatever place they succeed in cap- turing a fugitive queen. Occasionally, when an impregnated female escapes by herself, she lays her eggs and establishes her own colony, unassisted by the workers ; in which case she herself performs the duties to the eggs which would otherwise be rendered by the nurse ants. The males, after their duties of impreg- nating the females are performed, are permit- ted to stray away after then- own pleasure, ' without any effort on the part of the workers to retain them, and die shortly afterward. It was formerly supposed that all ants procured wings at a certain stage of their growth ; but