p. 473 | Ants' Eggs

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 18, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 36.

Ants' Eggs.

THE eggs of the ant are very minute, and are covered with a glutinous matter, which enables the worker to carry them off, without injury, in her mandibles. The eggs are placed in specially prepared chambers, and licked now and then, probably to give them the requisite amount of moisture, and they are carried alternately to the upper and lower stories, in order that they may be kept at the proper temperature.

"When the larvae are hatched," says Blanchard, "more care than ever is required on the part of the laborious insects; for then the ants, which we have noticed as able and industrious architects, have to take their turn in the nursing, and certainly more attentive, vigilant, and devoted servants could not be found.

The little vermiform larvae cannot move; but they have the instinct to lift their heads and open their mouths, so as to receive their subsistence from the jaws of the nurses; and they are thus fed like the little birds lately hatched."

Even when the larval state is passed, and the little grub fastens itself up in its silken web, and lies inert and helpless, the care of the nurses does not cease. Should an ants' nest be disturbed, the first care of the workers is to seize these little silken balls, so often erroneously called ants' eggs, and to convey them to a place of safety; and when at last, by attentive listening, they discover the pupa moving within its silken prison, they hasten to tear it open and release the prisoner.

Should the newly-born insect prove winged, the attentive nurse smooths out the glittering wings caressingly, feeds it, and cares for it, till it is time for it to take its flight from the parent nest. Should it, on the contrary, prove a worker like herself, she takes her and instructs her in household affairs, as human mothers would do; and, doubtless, this early education has much to do with the so-called instinct so largely developed in this class of insects.—Selected.