iv ANTS CAMPONOTIDES 145 



constriction at all on the oval, convex and compact mass of the 

 abdomen behind this. The cloacal orifice is circular, not, as in 

 other ants, transverse. These characters are accompanied by a 

 difference in habits. The Camponotides, though they do not 

 sting, produce poison in large quantity, and eject it to some dis- 

 tance. Hence, if two specimens are confined in a tube they are 

 apt to kill one another by the random discharges they make. 

 Janet suggests that in order to neutralise the effect of this very 

 acid poison, they may have some means of using, when they are 

 in their natural abodes, the alkaline contents of a second gland 

 with which they are provided. We shall mention the characters 

 by which the Camponotides are distinguished from the small 

 sub-family Dolichoderides when we deal with the latter. 



The sub -family includes 800 or more species. Camponotus 

 itself is one of the most numerous in species of all the genera of 

 Formicidae, and is distributed over most parts of the earth. We 

 have no species of it in Britain, but in the south of Europe the 

 Camponotus become very conspicuous, and may be seen almost 

 everywhere stalking about, after the fashion of our British wood- 

 ant, Formica rufa, which in general appearance Camponotus much 

 resembles. 



Until recently, the manner in which fresh nests of ants were 

 founded was unknown. In established nests the queen-ant is 

 fed and tended by the workers, and the care of the helpless larvae 

 and pupae also devolves entirely on the workers, so that the 

 queens are relieved of all functions except that of producing eggs. 

 It seemed therefore impossible that a fresh nest could be estab- 

 lished by a single female ant unless she were assisted by workers. 

 The mode in which nests are founded has, however, been recently 

 demonstrated by the observations of Lubbock, M'Cook, Adlerz, 

 and more particularly by those of Blochmann, who was successful 

 in observing the formation of new nests by Camponotus ligni- 

 perdus at Heidelberg. He found under stones in the spring 

 many examples of females, either solitary or accompanied only 

 by a few eggs, larvae or pupae. Further, he was successful in 

 getting isolated females to commence nesting in confinement, and 

 observed that the ant that afterwards becomes the queen, at first 

 carries out by herself all the duties of the nest : beginning by 

 making a small burrow, she lays some eggs, and when these hatch, 

 feeds and tends the larvae and pupae ; the first specimens of these 



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