.V- ANTS. 



temporarily, thai is, till the contents of the crop, or ingluvies, have been 

 distributed. 



The conditions >een in Prenolepis may he said to represent one of 

 the incipient stages in the development of the true honey ants. This 

 development is characterized first, by an exaggeration of the tendency 

 to repletion, second, by a restriction of this tendency to certain workers, 

 and third, by repletion becoming a permanent morphological modifica- 

 tion. I'.ut as repletion does not set in until after the worker hatches, 

 \ve must regard it as an acquired physiological state depending on the 

 environment, that is, on. the amount of nectar or honey-clew obtainable 

 in a given locality. Although all workers are able to distend their 

 crops considerably while foraging, true, or perfect repletes are devel- 



FIG. 214. Replete worker of Melofhorus bagoti of Australia. (Original.) 



oped only within the nest, where they remain and store the sweets 

 brought in by the foragers, and thus function as living bottles or casks 

 to which the hungry workers can resort during seasons of scarcity or 

 famine. 



Honey ants have been described from North America, South Africa 

 and Australia. The various species show considerable differences in 

 the degree of gastric distension which they are able to attain. In some 

 cases this is no greater than that of Prcnolcpis, in others the gaster 

 may be swollen out till it forms a perfect sphere, so large and with walls 

 so tense and easily ruptured that the insect cannot walk about and is 

 compelled to lead a quiescent life, hanging by its claws from the roofs 

 of the nest chambers. This extreme degree of distension is reached 

 in certain subspecies and varieties of our American species of Myrme- 

 cocystus. The various known honey ants may be described in the 

 order of increasing development, although this will make it necessary 

 to begin with forms that are but little known and reserve till the last 



