FEEDING THE COMMUNE 



seizing a replete, hold down its head with their large 

 forefeet, and compel it to give up the contents of its 

 crop. This greediness has its penalty in times when 

 food is scarce; for in order to rid the commune of 

 such voracious and non-productive mendicants, they 

 are killed outright or starved to death by the 

 workers. 



The honey-ants as studied by the author in Colorado 

 made their night expeditions into a scrub-oak copse, and 

 the sweet liquid with which their crops were filled on 

 their return was collected from oak-galls formed upon the 

 twigs and branches 1 (Fig. 52). But, doubtless, like other 



Fig. 52 SPRIG OF DWARF-OAK (QUERCUS UNDULATOR), WITH 



GALLS EXUDING DROPS OF SWEET SAP 



ants, they know the value of aphides, and, as the seasons 

 change, gather from them and from other sources the 



1 Nature's Craftsmen, chap. x. 

 109 



