164 Bulletin Wisconsin Natural History Society. [Vol. 8, No. 4. 



investigation for points of dependence, for which he selected the For- 

 aging Worker Ant, pointing out the buccal cavity, the crop, the giz- 

 zard, the stomach, and their uses. The method of these ants feeding 

 each other from a "social stomach" or "communal stomach" was illus- 

 trated by an observation made by the lecturer during the summer, a 

 case of ant-maze and an ant nurse Who fed the young at a distance 

 from the nest. 



Three types of ants and their use of the crop were explained. 

 First, the enormous distension of the crop in Honey Ants, "movable 

 pantries," as they have been called, who, despite their weight — such 

 that they cannot crawl — hang to the ceiling of the nest, and there may 

 die and not drop till two or four days later. When dead the ant is cut 

 in two at the pedicel and the anterior part and the honey pot cast on 

 the kitchen refuse ; but if a live ant is mashed the others unmercifully 

 suck up her juices. In the honey ant, therefore, the crop takes a place 

 similar to that of the bees' honey cells. 



The second illustration was that of the Mushroom Growing Ant r 

 where the queen carries the "spawn" in her buccal pocket and starts 

 and manures her own garden. Here the worker's crop plays a little 

 part, no doubt, but the young, the queen and workers are fed from 

 the fungus products. 



A third example are the Seed-Collecting Ants. But the use of the 

 crop is here in doubt, unless it be to store the sugary solution of 

 seeds. Mr. Burrill also touched upon the licking and mouthing propen- 

 sities of ants, so necessary to clean the members of a ne»st and to keep 

 the latter free from harmful fungi. This propensity likewise inter- 

 fered with the lecturer's attempt to mark ants with aluminum paint. 



Ant communism, therefore, appears to be based on : first, on a 

 communal stomach which makes each the servant of all and so every- 

 thing naturally becomes the property of all ; secondly, on the love of 

 tasting and licking things, which, applied to each other, cleanse the 

 whole community and cares for the health of it. No close parallel can 

 be drawn with the human race. Yet we can see that, overlooking the 

 dependence of the babe on the mother's milk, on an intellectual plane 

 we accomplish what the ants do on a physical, viz. — first, by our 

 great transportation systems we redistribute our food crops and sup- 

 plies ; secondly, by our slowly-growing sanitary and similar commis- 

 sions, we clean the community and keep up the tone of health. Human 

 Socialism must be on an intellectual plane, while ant Socialism is on 



