74 



ANTS. 



function like the salivary coating of the eggs, in enabling the ants to 

 transport large numbers of their offspring with little effort. This is 

 a matter of great moment when the colony is disturbed or attacked 



and the young have to be 

 carried away and concealed 

 with great dispatch. 



llesides hairs, the larva 

 of many Ponerine genera 

 (Lobopclta, Pachycondyla. 

 Poncra, Diacainina, etc. ) 

 have prominent, pointed, 

 or rounded tubercles which 

 probably' have a protective 

 function ( Figs. 39-41 ) , and 

 in addition to these, Punera 

 has pairs of glutinous dor- 

 sal tubercles (Fig. 41) 

 which, like the flexuous, 

 hooked hairs of many Myr- 

 micinae, serve to attach the 

 larva to the walls of the 

 nest (Wheeler, 1900^). 



The feeding of the larvae is of considerable interest owing to the 

 prevailing supposition that the quantity or quality of the food, or 

 both, determine whether the larva hatching from a fertilized egg shall 

 become a worker or a female. Recent observations have shown that 

 the different species adopt very different methods of nourishing their 

 brood. Many ants, like most Camponotinae, Dolichoderinae and Myr- 

 micinae, feed their larvae only on regurgitated liquids, whereas the 

 Ponerinae, many Myrmicinse and probably also the Dorylinae, feed 

 them directly with pieces of the same kind of food that they bring 

 into the nest for their own consumption. Carnivorous species give 

 their larvae pieces of insects, and the harvesting ants (Pogonomyrmex, 

 some species of Phcidolc] administer fragments of seeds. In larvae 

 that are habitually fed on such resistant substance the mandibles are 

 apt to be more highly developed. Some species ( Afhccnoyaster, Lashis, 

 Phcidolc, etc.) undoubtedly feed their brood both with regurgitated 

 and solid food. Certain groups of ants that have developed a special- 

 ized diet in their adult stages show a corresponding specialization in 

 feeding their young. Thus the larvae of the fungus-growing Attii of 

 tropical America are nourished with wisps of fungus-hyphae, and 

 according to Dahl ( 1901. p. 31 i the larvae of the East Indian Campo- 



FIG. 40. Eggs and larvre of Pachycondyla 

 harpa.v. (Original.) a. Eggs ; b, young larva 

 with pointed tubercles ; c, tubercle of same en- 

 larged : d. adult larva with boss-like tubercles ; 

 e, head of same from above. 



