26 WHEELER. [VOL. II. 



it to a large larva at 1 1.20. This larva fed but a few moments, 

 but the cake was not removed till 11.35, when it was carried 

 into another chamber, then at once brought back and placed 

 between three larvae, from one of which it had just been taken. 

 The smallest of these three larvae nibbled at it for a short 

 time, beginning at 11.40. But one minute later this larva was 

 carried away by a worker, and the cake was taken by another 

 worker and given to a small larva at 11.43. This larva, too, 

 was soon carried away (at 1 1.48), and the cake was taken to a 

 large larva, which would have none of it. It was not removed, 

 however, till 11.50. Then it was given by another worker to 

 a large larva, which did eat some of it. At 1 1.51 the piece of 

 cake, but little diminished in size after all its perambulations, 

 was taken to another large larva. The ant remained over the 

 larva holding the cake in place till 11.58, when another worker 

 came up and ran away with the larva. While the larvae were 

 feeding, the ants themselves could be plainly seen to partake 

 of the cake from time to time. During the whole period of 

 the above observations, and for some minutes later, i.e., for over 

 an hour, one little larva was permitted to feed without inter- 

 ruption on what seemed to be a piece of a house-fly. 



These observations lead us to several interesting reflections. 

 First, it is certain that the feeding of the larva of the Ponerinae 

 is of a far more primitive character than in any other ants in 

 which this process has been studied. It is, in fact, even more 

 primitive than the corresponding habit of the social wasps, 

 which feed their larvae with masticated insect prey, for in the 

 Ponerinae the prey is cut into a few pieces only, for the pur- 

 pose of exposing the soft tissues and making them accessible 

 to the mandibles of the larvae. Myriopods or large insects are 

 disarticulated for this purpose, small insects are merely torn 

 open. Leaving the question of systematic affinities out of 

 consideration, the Ponerinae may be said to have habits of 

 feeding the young intermediate between the habits of the soli- 

 tary wasps, which provide their young with whole insects, and 

 the social wasps, which masticate the food for their larvae. In 

 this statement it may, perhaps, be more accurate to substitute 

 the Bembecidae for the solitary wasps, since the Bembecidae, 



