THE I'OXEKJNE ANTS. 237 



in the Odontouiachus nest at 11.07 P. M. A worker soon carried one 

 of the crumbs into the breeding chamber and gave it to a large larva 

 at 11. 20. This larva fed only 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. Tllis larva, too, was 

 carried away (at 11.48), 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 11.51 the piece of cake, but little diminished in size 

 after all its peregrinations, 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 par- 

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

 above observations, and for some minutes later, /'. e., for over an hour, 

 one little larva was permitted to feed without interruption on what 

 seemed to be a piece of a house-fly. 



I have cited these observations at length because of the doubt they 

 cast on the usually accepted view that the workers are able to determine 

 the character of the adult ant by the quantity or quality of the food 

 administered to the larvre. It is evident not only that the morsels set 

 before the larvae must be of very unequal nutritive value, but that the 

 very method of their distribution is far too capricious and irregular to 

 produce such clean-cut results as the adult worker and female. 



The pupae of the Ponerinae. so far as known, are always enclosed 

 in cocoons. This is undoubtedly the primitive ancestral condition 

 from which the absence of a cocoon in the Myrmicinse, Dolichoderinae, 

 Dorylinae and many Camponotinse has been derived by a suppres- 

 sion of the spinning habit of the larvae, or as in (Ecophylla by the use 

 of the silk for other purposes (building nests and aphid-tents). 



There is some evidence to indicate that certain Ponerinae are more 

 negligent of their brood than other ants. Forel (1899^) who observed 

 our North American Poncra pennsylvanica, was of the opinion that 

 this ant neglects its cocoons when the nest is uncovered and makes 

 no attempt to assemble or save them. I am convinced, however, from 

 frequent observation of Poncra. that Forel's account is incomplete. 

 It is true that the sudden admission of light into the nest causes the 

 ants to forsake their cocoons, but when one stops to watch the nest 



