THE HISTORY OF MYRMECOLOGY. 



129 



many other groups of insects. Other students of this subject are 

 Casey, Donisthorpe, Escherich, von Hagens, Kraatz, Lespes, George 

 Lewis, Lichtenstein, Lucas, RafYray, Renter, de Saulcey, Joli. Schmidt, 

 Sharp, Trimen, Yiehmeyer, and in the United States Cockerell, Brues, 

 Hamilton, Haldemann, King, Schwarz and Wickham. The relation 

 of plants to ants has been studied by many botanists, notably by Del- 

 pino, lluth, Holmgren, A. Moeller, Fritz Mueller, Schimper, Trenb, 

 von Ihering, Rettig and Ule. 



Although the history of ant morphology also goes back to such 

 investigators as Swammerdam and Leuwenhoek, little headway 

 could be made with the study of struc- 

 ture and development in such small 

 organisms till the microscope and the 

 technique of sectioning and staining had 

 been perfected, and this was accom- 

 plished only within the last quarter of a 

 century. Forel and Emery, and more 

 recently Janet, have done very important 

 work on the anatomy of ants. Other 

 authors worthy of mention in this hasty 

 review, are Adlerz, Berlese, Bos, Dewitz. 

 Fenger, Karawaiew, Leydig, Lubbock, 

 Meinert, Nassonow, Perez and Sharp. 

 As yet American zoologists have ac- 

 complished little in this interesting and 

 accessible field of investigation. After 

 this hasty sketch of the history of myr- 

 mecology we may take up a somewhat more detailed consideration of 

 the taxonomy of the Formicidse. 



Inasmuch as the generic and specific characters of ants are to be 

 derived not onlv from a male and female, but also from a worker 



j 



caste, the classification of these insects presents certain difficulties and 

 peculiarities not encountered in classifying most other animals. The 

 exact status of a species can, of course, be determined only when all 

 of its phases are known. The worker, as the most abundant, is usually 

 first to fall into the hands of the systematist, and many years may 

 elapse before the corresponding female and male are discovered. 

 There are still a great many exotic and even several European species 

 that are known only from one or at most two of the castes. Moreover, 

 the resemblances between the different phases of the same species are 

 often so remote that it is impossible to correlate workers and females, 

 workers and males, or males and females, unless they have been taken 



FIG. 73. Worker of Pristomyr- 

 ine.r japonicits. (Original.) 



