THE HABITS OF ANTS IN GENERAL. i?9 



manner the amazons are carried back to the nest by their slaves. In 

 all cases the deported, on being seized by the deporting ant, assumes a 

 quiescent attitude with her body curled and her legs drawn up as if 

 she were dead. The position in which she is carried seems to be char- 

 acteristic of certain species, though this matter has not been studied in 

 any great detail. In Formica the deporting ant seizes the ant to be 

 deported by the mandibles and holds her with back directed forward 

 and downward and head uppermost. The deporting Texas harvester 

 (Pogonomyrmex molefacicns), as McCook has shown (1879*:), seizes 

 her companion by the back of the pedicel and holds her head uppermost 

 and ventral surface facing forward. These ants also have a peculiar 

 habit of walking " tandem," sometimes in threes, the middle ant holding 

 the pedicel of the first with her mandibles and the hind ant doing the 

 same with the middle individual. In this position I have occasionally 

 seen them returning to the nest and have wondered whether this strange 

 performance could be a manifestation of the play-instinct, which Huber 

 and Forel believe they have detected in certain species of Formica. 

 In Leptothora.v another position is assumed by the deported ant, which 

 is held by her mandibles and curls herself up over the head of her 

 carrier with dorsal surface directed forward. Still another position 

 is adopted by Leptogenys, at least by the deported males, which are 

 held by the neck and lie stretched out under the body and between 

 the long legs of the deporting worker. The long slender cocoons of 

 this ant are carried in the same manner. 



The care of the nest is an important matter with all ants, for con- 

 venience no less than sanitation requires that the galleries and cham- 

 bers be kept scrupulously clean. All species, therefore, remove any 

 refuse food, empty cocoons, pupal exuviae, meconial pellets, dead mem- 

 bers of the colony, etc., to a proper distance from the living apart- 

 ments. Veritable kitchen middens are established for this purpose, 

 either in the open air or, if the colony is nesting under a large stone, 

 in one of the deserted surface galleries. 



A peculiar reaction is exhibited by nearly all ants in the presence 

 of some substance that they cannot remove, such as a strong-smelling 

 liquid. They throw pellets of earth or any other debris on the sub- 

 stance, sometimes in sufficient amount to bury it completely. The 

 origin of this reaction which is often manifested in artificial nests, is very 

 obscure. The fact that it is more frequently called forth by the presence 

 of liquids would seem to indicate that it may be a normal method of 

 staying the invasion of water into the galleries of the nest. It cer- 

 tainly has all the characters of a pure reflex, although, curiously 

 enough, its manifestation under certain conditions has been regarded 



