-3- 



ANTS. 



when young arc distinctly less active than the workers. Isolated 

 queens have shown no ability or inclination to excavate nests and very 

 little interest in eggs or larvae which have been entrusted to them." 



The workers of the various species of Ponerinae are monomorphic 

 and do not exhibit the singular polymorphism seen in the workers of 

 many genera in all the other subfamilies of ants. The only exception 

 is Mclissotiirsiis, an aberrant genus somewhat doubtfully referred to 

 the Ponerinae and unique among all ants in having worker and soldier 

 forms of the same size (Fig. 139). 



Owing to the small size of the colonies, the nests are usually small 

 and obscure. They are, moreover, even in the tropics, excavated in 

 the soil or in old logs. Few of the species ascend trees and most of 



FIG. 131. Ponerine ants. (Original.) A, B and C. Worker, female and male 

 of Stigmatomma pallipes ; D, E and F, worker, female and male of Poncra pcnn- 

 sylvanica. 



these, like Myrmccia, Neoponera and Ectatomma, nest in the ground. 

 The nests are simply and rudely excavated, without smoothly finished 

 chambers and galleries or carefully constructed craters around their 

 entrances. As a rule the colonies are strictly monodomous, but Cook 

 has made the interesting observation that Ectatomma tuberculatum is 

 polydomous. In this ant a single colony often extends over several 

 nests, and he is of the opinion that new colonies are formed by a process 

 of budding, like that seen in several of the higher ants, and not by 



