The queen does not, as in the case of the bee, deposit her eggs in separate cells where they are tended by nurses. The eggs, which are laid in the chambers of the nest, are subjected to much licking by the nurses; the larvæ are, moreover, moved about from place to place, so as to be subjected to the requisite conditions of moisture and temperature. They are carefully cleaned, and after they have passed into the pupa stage the emerging insects are stripped of a delicate investing skin. And not only do the ants assiduously feed their young; those who have gone forth and drunk their fill of sweet juices feed those who have remained behind. Forel took some specimens of _Componotus ligniperdus_, “and shut them up without food for several days, and thereafter supplied some of them with honey, stained with Prussian blue; being very hungry, they fed so greedily on this that in a few hours their hind bodies were distended to three times their previous size. He then took one of these gorged individuals, and placed it among those that had not been fed. The replete ant was at once explored by touches of the other ants and surrounded, and food was begged from it. It responded to the demands by feeding a small specimen from its mouth, and when this little one had received a good supply, it in turn communicated some thereof to other specimens; while the original well-fed one also supplied others, and thus the food was speedily distributed. This habit of receiving and giving food is of the greatest importance in the life-history of ants.”[94] It affords the basis or starting-point of the keeping of aphides, the making of slaves, the curious development of honey-pot ants, and in some cases the association with ants of other insects. [Illustration: FIG. 25.--Beetle soliciting food from Ant (after Wasmann).]