The workers are the smallest ants in a hill. There are fewer queens than any other kind, except after most of the drone ants go off and die. At that time there are very few drones.
In a battle, two ants will often cling to each other by their jaws, until both die. The usual way in which an ant soldier kills a foe is by cutting off the head.
Sometimes the battle ends without any killing. At other times the ants are very fierce, and large numbers are cut to pieces.
When strange ants get into a hill, sometimes they are driven out; sometimes they are killed; sometimes they are treated kindly.
I put a black ant into the gate of a city of brown ants. You should have seen how they drove him out! He ran as if he were wild with fear. Three or four brown ants came after him to the edge of their hill.
But though some strange ants are cast out so fiercely, there are two or three kinds of beetles which go into ant-hills and live with the ants. The ants do not harm them in any way. You shall hear about that when we have some lessons about beetles.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] For Lessons on Wasps, Bees, and Spiders, see First Book.
LESSON VIII.
THE SLAVE ANTS.