54S 



ANTS. 



a few legs, the former destroyed by being spitted on a pin, and the 

 whole enveloped in a mass of grease and verdigris. 



While collecting ants and making every endeavor to secure all their 

 phases, it is important to collect all the parasites and myrmecophiles 

 that may occur in their nests. These insects are most easily found in 

 the earl}- spring when they seek the warmth in the upper galleries, or 



\- _ . _ -op pff- , 



6 



FIG. 282. Janet nest of porous material such as plaster, terra cotta. soft stone, 

 etc. (Janet.) B, Seen from above with covers removed : A, in vertical section : a, 

 block with three chambers ; b, water chamber which is filled once or twice a week ; 

 Ch. i, dark and very moist chamber; Ch. 2, dark and somewhat humid chamber in- 

 habited by the ants ; Ch. 3, dry chamber, exposed to light and containing the manger ; 

 g, communicating galleries in the walls separating the chambers, r 1 , large plate 

 of glass covering all the chambers, pierced with a hole (c) over the center of each 

 chamber ; f 2 , three separate pieces of glass which close the openings in the large 

 plate ; op, opaque cover (felt, cardboard or plaster) serving to darken chambers i 

 and 2 : j. plate of glass placed under the nest to prevent the moisture of the nest 

 from reaching the table on which it stands. 



on the lower surfaces of stones. They should always be mounted on 

 the same pins with one or more specimens of their host. The same 

 rule should be followed in the case of all parasitic or inquilinous ants, 

 which are also myrmecophiles. I find it best not to mix the myrmeco- 

 philes in with the general collection of ants, but to keep them by them- 

 selves in a systematically arranged collection, in which the ants are 

 represented merely as hosts. 



The student will find that the new Zeiss pocket microscope, consist- 

 ing of a couple of lenses of rather long focal distance and magnifying 

 some sixteen and twenty-seven diameters respectively suffices for the 

 taxonomic study of most ants. In the examination of some of the 

 smaller species, however, especially in counting the antennal and palpal 



