The female _Psocus_ lays her eggs in little clusters of from fifteen to twenty, and protects each cluster under a sort of dome or shield of gnawed wood which she presses upon them so that they stick to it. She is said to brood over the eggs, but this does not appear to mean that she actually incubates them. Rather, she remains about, keeping watchful guard till they are hatched, and then takes the young to find pasture, walking at their head like a hen in front of her chickens. From such beginnings as these it seems possible that the social life of ants has been, in the course of ages, evolved and developed. ----- Footnote 60: Belt, The Naturalist in Nicaragua, pp. 72, 73, 79-81. Footnote 61: Journal of the Trinidad Field Club, No. 3. Footnote 62: As quoted in The American Naturalist for November, 1900. Footnote 63: The American Naturalist, November, 1900. Footnote 64: Belt, The Naturalist in Nicaragua, pp. 27, 28. Footnote 65: Lubbock, Ants, Bees, and Wasps. Footnote 66: The greatest being speedy extinction. Footnote 67: Darwin, The Descent of Man, p. 54. Footnote 68: The Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, March, 1900. Footnote 69: Leland O. Howard, The Insect Book. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XVI From wood to ambrosia—Wood-boring beetles—Rival claimants—Stag and other beetles—Metempsychosis—Flies with horns—Comical combatants—Female encouragement—The sacred Scarabæus—A beetle with a profession—Table companions—Old and new fallacies—From theft to partnership.