214 



ENTOMOLOGY 



tion that a plant derives thereby is merely incidental. Furthermore, 

 hollow stems, glandular petioles and pitted stems are of common oc- 

 currence when they bear no relation to the needs of ants. These inter- 

 relations of ants and plants are too often misinterpreted in popular and 

 uncritical accounts of the subject. 



The interesting habits of the leaf-cutting ants in relation to the 

 plants that they attack are described in a subsequent chapter, where 

 will be found also an account of the harvesting ants. 



FIG. 268. Cecropia adenopus. Base of 

 petiole showing "Miiller's bodies." 

 Slightly reduced. 



FIG. 269.- Hydnophytum montannm. Sec- 

 tion of pseudo-bulb, to show chambers inhabited 

 by ants. One-fourth natural size. After FOREL. 



The epiphytic plants Myrmecodia and Hydnophytum, of Java, form 

 spongy bulb-like masses, the chambers of which are usually tenanted by 

 ants, which rush forth when disturbed. These lumps (Fig. 269) are 

 primarily water-reservoirs, but the ants utilize them by boring into them 

 and from one chamber into another. In plants of the genus Hwnboldtia 

 the ants can enter the hollow internodes through openings that already 

 exist. 



