Social Insects. 69 



ning over the trees and shrubs and other plants, searching for plant-lice, 

 from which they gather the sweet rejectamenta, gorging themselves fre 

 quently to such an extent that ithey return home with difficulty. This 

 honey is used chiefly for feeding the larvae. 



HONEY ANTS. There is really but one Honey Ant, strictly speaking, viz, 

 Myrmecocystus melliger Llave (M. mexicanus Westm.), in North America, and 

 this ranges from Mexico to Colorado. Other species occur in other parts of 

 the world, with somewhat similar habits, and one is especially mentioned 

 by Lubbock from Australia (Camponotusinflatus Lubb.) which has undergone 

 precisely the same modifications, though belonging to a distinct genus, a 

 most interesting fact, since it shows that the modification has arisen inde 

 pendently. The honey collected and stored by these ants has little value 

 commercially, first, because of its rather poor quality ; secondly, because of 

 its small quantity barely more than half a pint to each colony obtainable ; 

 and, thirdly, because of the difficulty of colonizing or in any way commer 

 cially manipulating the ants. The insect must be crushed to obtain the 

 honey. Yet it is sought for by the Mexican Indians, and used to a con 

 siderable extent. The formicaries are little truncated cones from two to 

 three inches high, and usually less than a foot in diameter. They have a 

 tubular channel, a few inches in diameter, leading from the central opening 

 to the interior, to a depth of six inches or more below the general surface. 

 Here are often found one or more dome-like vaults or honey -chambers, 

 about an inch deep by about three inches in width. Hanging from the 

 roughened roof of these chambers may, at any time, be found numbers of 

 the honey-bearers, with immensely swollen abdomens and looking, when 

 congregated, like a series of small grapes or large currants, with the same 

 translucency which these possess. These individuals have little capacity 

 for movement, and indeed move but little. They are but living receptacles 

 of the sweets which are gathered by the real workers, and the food-supply 

 of the rest of the colony is only drawn from these stationary honey reserves, 

 or animated honey pots, as Lubbock calls them, when necessity requires. 

 The modifications are confined to the abdominal portion of the digestive 

 organs. The honey is gathered from a little Cynipid oak-gall which I have 

 described as Cynips quercus-niellaria and which abounds on a small scrubby 

 oak (Qaercus undulata) frequent in those regions. The ants always work at 

 night, making their way in long strings to the nearest gall-bearing tree, the 

 branches of w T hich they carefully search for the young and succulent galls 

 which secrete a small globule of a clear saccharine liquid. The gathered 

 liquid is then, upon the return to the formicary, emptied into the mouths 

 of those individuals which serve as honey stores. 



LEAF-CUTTING ANTS. These are represented almost solely by the genus 

 Atta, which abounds in tropical and sub-tropical countries, where the species 

 are dreaded by planters because of their great destructiveness to culti 

 vated plants and trees. These ants have been denominated agricultural 

 ants, and recent observations have confirmed the explanation originally 

 urged by Belt, that the leaves are cut into pieces and gathered into small 

 heaps, as a nidus for the cultivation of a fungus (Kozites) the mycelium 

 form of some mushroom, so that they may be said to have anticipated man 

 in this kind of culture. The only two species belonging to the genus so far 

 observed in this country, are Altafervens Say, and Atta tardigrada Buckley. 

 The former is our commonest species, occurring in Texas. Its formicaries 

 are often twenty feet in diameter and several feet high, with numerous 

 smaller moundlets scattered over the surface. They have a crater-like de 

 pression in the top, with a central opening running down into the formicary, 

 sometimes to a very great depth. Each formicary contains immense num 

 bers of individuals, and during the day appears to be empty and deserted. 

 After dark, however, the entrances are opened, first by smaller workers 

 who remove the particles of sand and earth, then by individuals of larger 

 form who aid in removing the refuse. When the way has been sufficiently 

 cleared, the inmates pour forth, both workers and soldiers, and march to 



