The eggs of ants are so small as to be scarcely visible to the naked eye. The mother drops them at random in her progress through the nest; but the workers, of whom some are always in attendance on her, immediately seize them, moisten them with their tongue, and lay them in heaps in particular apartments of the nest. They continue to watch them, and to remove them from one quarter of the nest to another, apparently in order that they may always enjoy a suitable temperature, and perhaps in order to avoid any excess of moisture. In a few days the young larva are produced; and these require the unremitting care of the workers, which feed them, disgorging into their mouths, for this purpose, a viscid substance, supposed to be the ordinary food of the species, pre pared for their use by a sort of half digestion. They are also extremely careful to keep the young brood clean, by constant application of their tongue and mandibles; and a great amount of labor is daily expended upon them in conveying them from the inner apartments of the nest towards the surface after sunrise, when the weather is fine, and back a2miu before sunset, or when the weather becomes cold, or there is a prospect of rain. 'The same care is extended to the pupa. The larvae and pupa; are the white objects which the workers are seen hastily seizing and carrying off to places of safety, when an ant's nest is broken open; and the resemblance of which, particularly of the pupa, to grains of barley, is supposed to have contributed to the general belief, that ants amass stores of corn for winter food. The larvae have no organs of locomotion. The pupae are enveloped in delicate silken cocoons, and unlike those of other insects, require assistance to extricate themselves from them when they have attained their per fect state. This assistance also is afforded by the workers.
The whole supplies of. food for the inmates of the nest are brought to it by the workers. The food of some kinds is exclusively or chiefly animal; that of others, vegetable. The provisions carried to their nests by the ants of Britain and other countries in which the winter is cold are apparently not intended for winter, when the creatures are entirely torpid, but only for present use; and few, if any of the species, feed on grain or seeds. But colonel Sykes discovered at Poonali a species of ants (atta providens), which not only store up provisions, but of which the stores consist of the seeds of a species of millet; and Mr. Moggridge has recently determined by careful observation that large stores of grain and seeds are laid up by some of the ants of the south of Europe, especially atta barbara and atta structor. The grain and other seeds stored up by ants seem, in some way not yet known, to be deprived of the power of germination. The ant has long been a sort of proverbial type, not only of industry, but of provident care for the future. Some ants, however, collect and carry to their nests substances which are not intended for food, but for the construction of the nest, and particularly for closing its apertures in cold or wet weather. In this way they gather together small heaps of chips of wood, bits of straw, small pebbles, etc.
The vegetable substance which ants seem chiefly to use as food is sugar; and to this, wherever it is to be found, they seem to be guided by a very acute sense of smell. the saccharine excretion of the aphides (see Amirs), is a favorite food of many species; and with this are connected some of their most extraordinary instincts; for not only do they climb the plants on which the aphides abound, that they may obtain this food, but they have been seen to wait beside them for new drops, and even to touch them with their antennae, in order to cause the drops to flow, patting the abdomen of the aphis on each side alternately and rapidly; the ant, after the drop has been obtained.
passing on to another aphis. The whole process has been likened to the milking of cattle. Even more wonderful things are asserted on this subject, as that particular ants seem to regard particular aphides as their own property, and are ready to fight in defense of their right to them—that, to secure them for themselves, they convey them from one place to another—and that the aphis radicum, which derives its nutriment from the roots of grass and other plants, is actually kept in large numbers in the nest of the yellow ant (formica flare), in order that there maybe always at hand a copious supply of food, these aphides and their eggs sharino. the solicitude of the ants equally with their own eggs and young. Things so wonderful are ascertained beyond dispute in regard to the instructs of ants, that even such statements as these must not be hastily rejected as incredible, and certainly they express the beliefs of careful and scientific observers.
Ants which feed upon animal food render importaut service in clearing away every vestige of the flesh of dead animals, and so preventing corruption; and very beautiful skeletons of small animals have been obtained by burying the animal for a short time in an aut-hill. But ants also attack living animals: insects of comparatively large size fall a prey to them, and in tropical countries, birds, reptiles, and small quadrupeds are sometimes devoured by their vast swarms, which strip the bones of the animal perfectly clean with wonderful rapidity. Domestic animals, at least when sick, are not safe from them, and man himself regards them with dread. About 100 years ago, vast num bers of a particular kind of ant (F. saccharirora) appeared in the island of Grenada. This species makes its nest under the roots of plants,. and the sugarcanes were so weakened and injured in consequence, that the plantations became nearly unproductive. "They descended from the hills like torrents, and the plantations, as well as every path and road for miles, were filled with them. Rats, mice, and reptiles of every kind became an easy prey to them; and even the birds, which they attacked whenever they lighted on the ground in search of food, were so harassed, as to be at length unable to resist them. Streams of water opposed only a temporary obstacle to their progress; the foremost rushing blindly on certain death, and fresh armies instantly following, till a bank was formed of the carcasses of those which were drowned, sufficient to dam up the waters. and allow the main body to pass over in safety below. Even fire was tried without effect. When it was lighted to arrest their route, they rushed into the blaze in such myriads as to extinguish it." A reward of £20,000 was offered in vain for an effectual means of destroying them; but in 1780 a hurricane which tore up the canes, and exposed their habitations to a deluge of rain, freed the island from this plague.