IV. INSECTA: HEXAPODA, RHVXCIIOTA 



127 



than those of the bees, but their social organization is frequently more compli- 

 cated. In the colony occur the wingless workers (rudimentary females with 

 wing pads in larval life which are lost in pupation), and of these frequently 

 there are different kinds, large-headed soldiers and small-headed workers; 

 'honey sacs' in Myrmccocystus (fig. 477, A); and the sexual animals, queens and 

 drones, which copulate in a marriage flight. The queens, after the flight found 

 new colonies, in which, after biting off the wings, they enclose themselves in a 

 royal chamber. They may (Dorylitue), swell like the termite queens so enor- 

 mously that they were once regarded as different genera. There may be a 

 number of queens in a colony, and as swarming is not a necessity, a colony may 



FIG. 477. A, M \rmecocystus melliger,* honey-sac ant. (orig.) B, Plant of 

 Hydnophyton (after Forbes) showing the bulb occupied by ants. 



be enormous. It may send out other colonies which may retain relations with 

 the mother colony, or may found a distinct state. Frequently other insects, 

 like the Aphides, are kept for the honey dew they produce. Many ants steal 

 the pupas of others and, when the adults emerge, keep them as slaves. In 

 Polyergus rufescens this has gone so far that the masters cannot care for them- 

 selves and must be fed by the slaves. The ants possess extreme interest on 

 account of their carefully planned wars (Ecitons); on account of their relations 

 to plants, some species making nests in the growing plant (fig. 477, B) and pro- 

 tecting it by their bites; the leaf-cutting ants carry leaves into their underground 

 nests for the cultivation of fungi on which they feed, the agricultural ants from 

 their plantations and stores of grain, and the honey ants from the fact that certain 

 workers (fig. 477, A) act as reservoirs of honey, these 'honey sacs' swelling up to 

 enormous size. 



Order VIII. Rhynchota. 



The Rhynchota, or bugs, in external appearance are nearest to the 

 Archiptera and Orthoptera. The head, thorax, and abdomen are 

 joined in the same way; the development is hemimetabolous (in the 

 wingless species ametabolous). Confusion with the Orthoptera has 

 led to the Cicadas with their membranous wings being called locusts, 

 on the other hand, the delicate-winged Aphides resemble the Archiptera. 



