156 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



being wingless, by the want of the three ocelli on the top of the head 

 that other hymenoptera possess, while the form of the body resem- 

 bles the Scoliida^ though more hirsute. They are deep red and 

 black, and are solitary in their habits. They belong more to the 

 Southern and Middle States, — one species only being found in Mas- 

 sachusetts. The females run in hot places, and hide themselves 

 quickly when disturbed, while the males frequent flowers. They 

 take flies by surprising them. The sting of Uutilla coccinea in this 

 country is said to be very powerful. This family, in its wingless 

 females and structural features generally, leads to the ants, where 

 we have three kinds of individuals, as has been noticed in the bees, 

 but differing in the workers being wingless. 



Formicidce. Ants have a triangular head, round eyes, long 

 elbowed antenna* and slender legs. Some species have a sting 

 like the other fossorial families. The males are much smaller than 

 the females, and the wingless workers are a little smaller than the 

 males. The mandibles in those species that do not themselves 

 labor, but enslave the workers of other species, are slender and 

 smooth, though they are generall)? stout and toothed. As in the 

 bees, there have been found in some species two sets of workers, 

 (a few being of larger size than usual, with ver}"- large heads,) which 

 are said to make honey in cells, like worker-bees. 



The habits of our ants in America have not been recorded. The 

 little yellow ant that digs its holes in paths ; the pismires that 

 excavate their galleries in' stumps ; the ferocious red and brown 

 species that raises its hills of sand in woods, or of cla}^ in clayey- 

 places, and the large Pennsylvania ant nearly an inch long, whose 

 colonies we find under boards, &c., are but little known. In col- 

 lecting them they should be caught when swarming, that is when 

 the winged sexes come out of their holes and fill the air in countless 

 hosts. The little yellow ants swarm thus in the second week of 

 September on a hot day that we generally have at that time. 

 Hundreds of them should be pinned, or bettor, thrown into alcohol, 

 keeping the colonies separate. So also their eggs, with the larvae 

 and pupae, should be taken in large numbers. 



Unlike the bees, ants are represented in winter by the workers 

 alone, the winged sexes only appearing in the summer. After 

 swarming, the females lay their minute eggs, and Gould, an English 

 observer, says that those destined to hatch the future females, 

 males, and workers, are deposited at three different periods. The 

 larvae are like those of hymenoptera in general, being footless grubs, 



