Ants, bees, and wasps : a record of observations on the habits of the social Hymenoptera . me workers of F. cinerea lived in one of mynests from November 1875 to April 1882. Workers of F. fusca have attained the age of sisyears in several of my nests, and in one of Lasius nigerbrought in ou November 30, 1875, there were noqueens; and, as already mentioned, no workers havebeen produced. Those now living (Pebruary 1883) aretherefore the original ones, and they must be morethan Keveu years old. The duration of life in ants is therefore muchgreater than has been hitherto supposed. Though I lose ma
Ants, bees, and wasps : a record of observations on the habits of the social Hymenoptera . me workers of F. cinerea lived in one of mynests from November 1875 to April 1882. Workers of F. fusca have attained the age of sisyears in several of my nests, and in one of Lasius nigerbrought in ou November 30, 1875, there were noqueens; and, as already mentioned, no workers havebeen produced. Those now living (Pebruary 1883) aretherefore the original ones, and they must be morethan Keveu years old. The duration of life in ants is therefore muchgreater than has been hitherto supposed. Though I lose many ants from accidents, especiallyin summer, in winter there are very few deaths. I have o-iven the following figures (fig. 2 and PI. VII.),which represent a typical nest belonging to Lasiusniger, because it is a good instance of the mode inwhich my ants excavated chambers and galleries forthemselves, and seems to show some ideas of nest is, as usual, between two plates of glass, theouter border is a fi-amework of wood, and the shaded part AKRANGEMENT OF A NEST. 43 Fig. Ground-plan of a typical nest of Lasitts niger, reduced, a,narrow doorway ; h, hall; o, vestibule ; d, main chamber; e, innersanctum ; /, /, f, f. narrow entrance passages to sanctum , <j, (j, spe-cial pillais. 44 AREANGEMENT OF CHAMBEES. represents garden mould, which the ants have them-selves excavated, as shown in the figure. For thesmall doorway (a), indeed, I am myself generally made the doorways of my nests narrow, soas to check evaporation and keep the nests frombecoming too dry. It will be observed, however, thatbehind the hall (6) the entrance contracts, and is stillfurther protected by a pillar of earth, which leaves oneither side a narrow passage which a single ant couldeasily guard, or which might be quickly blocked this is an irregular vestibule (c), contractedagain behind into a narrow passage, which is followedby another, this latter opening into the mai
Size: 1441px × 1735px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbees, bookyear1915
