1880.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 379 



hind leg, which was a little bent upward. Thus, without an,y per- 

 ceptible siippoi't, except that which her jaws gave her upon the 

 quill i)oint, she hung outstretched for several minutes. How 

 long she would have kept this position I know not, for I dropped 

 her into the nest b}' clipping off with scissors the i)oint of the 

 quill, which, after hugging fiercely for a while, she finally abandoned 

 as an unresponsive and unworthy foe. 



In the course of the above migration, one queen was seen to 

 resist carriage so vigorously that she was finally dropped, and, 

 refusing to give the slave a hold upon the mandibles, was seized 

 b^^ the wing and dragged off. The Lucidus ants seemed to have 

 no Aolition in nor direction of this movement. I released a num- 

 ber from their porters during various stages of the transit, who 

 alwaj's wandered about with a confused, aimless and irritated 

 manner until again seized and borne off by slaA'es. 



The locality to which the formicary was being thus transported 

 was about six feet distant from the gates of the original nest. It 

 was either an old nest or a portion of the one just disturbed. The 

 quarters at least appeared to have been formerl}" prepared and 

 occupied. The gates of the nest were placed in one sloping side 

 and in the angle of a deep cross-furrow, and were quite well con- 

 cealed by tall grass and clover, tufts of sheep-shaw and various 

 small weeds (see fig. T). In the angle of the furrow was a cleft 

 in the earth nearly two inches long, one end of which was rounded 

 into a gate of the size and character of those first described, and 

 at the other end into a smaller similar vertical tube. This entrance 

 was so well concealed by grass that I did not see it for some time 

 (fig. 8, PL 19). Tsvo and a half inches diagonally above this was 

 a lateral cleft, three inches long, from a half to three-fourths of an 

 inch high, and penetrating into the earth laterally at various points 

 by galleries. The stalks of grass growing upon the side of the 

 slope above sent down their roots through the roof of this cleft vesti- 

 bule into the floor. On one side of the cleft, half an inch above it, 

 was an entrance, with a dome-shaped vestibule. On the other side, 

 three inches above, was a fourth gate, opening under a round 

 stone. While some slaves were engaged in deporting their For- 

 mica fellows and Polyergus associates into the new home, others 

 were busy bringing out sti'aws and sand as though preparing the 

 galleries and chambers Avithin. Occasionall}- a Lucidus worker 

 would show herself for a moment at the gate with outreaclied 



