3 66 .1\TS. 



to distinguish it ])articularly from other Camponoti, except the purely 

 physiological gastric distension which is evidently due to the enormous 

 plentitude of the crop, as in M ynnccocystus inclliycr. This distension, 

 however, is smaller than that of inclliycr." 



.More recently (1896) Froggatt has described the male and female 

 of C. inflatiis from specimens collected at Ayers Rock, Illamurta, in 

 the James Range of central Australia. All three phases of this ant are 

 black with paler legs and antennae. The repletes measure 17 mm. 

 Froggatt records the following notes sent him by Baldwin Spencer: 

 ' The black honey ant (Camponotus in flatus Lub.) is called ' Yarumpa ' 

 by the natives, by whom it is esteemed a great luxury ; it is, par excel- 

 lence, the honey ant of the central country, and ranges across to the 

 Murchison in western Australia. We found them plentiful in certain 

 districts on the hard, sandy plains, and also often very abundant in 

 patches among the Mulga scrub. The ground all round Ayers Rock, 

 to the south of Lake Amadeus, was strewn with heaps of sand where 

 the natives had been digging them out. They construct no mounds 

 over their nests; the entrance, which is an inch in length by a quarter 

 of an inch in width, leads down into a vertical shaft or burrow from 

 five to six feet in depth. About a foot below the surface horizontal 

 passages about a foot in length lead off from the main shaft, at the 

 end of which were three or four of the honey ants, while the bottom 

 of the main shaft, which is excavated into a larger cavity, contained a 

 considerable number. The ' honey ants ' are quite incapable of move- 

 ment and must be fed by the workers. Unlike all the other ants 

 noticed in this country, they did not appear to collect, twigs, leaves or 

 grass to carry into their burrows." 



5. Myrmecocystus mclliger, inc.ricanns and horti-deoruin. - -The 

 genus Myrmecocystus s. str. is confined to North America, ranging over 

 the deserts and dry plains from the City of Mexico to Denver, Colo. 

 Two species have been recognized, mcUiger and nie.ricanus, with some 

 eight subspecies and varieties (Wheeler, igoSd). Most of these are 

 highly insectivorous and show no tendency to form repletes, but the 

 var. horti-deorum (Figs. 217-219), of New Mexico and Colorado, is 

 known to have repletes like those of the species mc.vicanns to which 

 it belongs. 



The repletes of Myrmecocystus, which have long been esteemed as 

 an article of food by the Indians of Mexico and the Southwestern 

 States, were first described by Llave (1832) in an obscure Mexican 

 periodical from Mexican specimens, but it is impossible to determine 

 the speck's to which he referred. Wesmael (1838) also based .17. 

 inc.ricanns on Mexican specimens. Both of these authors described 



