Our insect friends and foes / by F. Martin Duncan.

  • F. Martin Duncan
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Our insect friends and foes / by F. Martin Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    62/348 page 36
    upon the queen. As other workers were gradu- ally introduced they joined their comrades; until the body of the queen (who is much larger than the workers) was nearly covered with them. They appeared to be holding on by their man- dibles to the delicate hairs upon the female’s body, and continually moved their antennae caressingly. This sort of attention continued until the queen, escorted by workers, disappeared in one of the galleries. She was entirely adopted, and there- after was often seen moving freely, or attended by guards, about the nest, at times engaged in attending the larvae and pupae which had been introduced with the workers of the strange colony.” That in some instances the queen has the power and instinct to found a colony and success- fully rear her larvae unaided, has been shown by another of Lord Avebury’s careful and interesting experiments. He isolated two pairs of Mynnica ruginodis which he had found flying in his gardens and successfully kept them under observation for a considerable period ; watching the queens deposit their eggs and tend their larvae and pupae, until, their metamorphosis completed, the workers were ready to help in the duties of rearing the young and providing a supply of food. It is also interesting to note that the two males captured at the same time as these queens, and kept with them under observation in Lord Avebury’s formicary, lived for eight and nine months respectively, after their nuptial flight. Lord Avebury has also most conclusively demon- strated that the duration of the life of the Ant is
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3