The Ants 



nies is the wonderful diversity of guest insects which are found 

 in them. Insects of several different orders may be found, in- 

 cluding beetles, grasshoppers, plant lice, bark lice and Thysan- 

 urans as well as mites. All these creatures play some part or 

 another in the economy of the community. Several are cared for 

 by the ants and furnish food through their secretions. Others 

 live at the expense of the ants, either as true parasites or as 

 partakers of ant food. Wasmann has long made a study of these 

 ant guests and his papers afford such fascinating reading that 

 they should be generally translated into English for the benefit of 

 persons engaged in nature study. 



Typical Life History. 



From the observations oi Dr. McCook on the agricultural 

 ant of Texas a nearly complete typical life history could be drawn 

 up, but the geographic range of this ant is so uncharacteristic of 

 the greater part of the United States that it does not seem wise 

 to devote the necessary space to such a treatment. The absence, 

 therefore, of a typical life history in such an abundant and com- 

 mon group as the ants will serve to emphasize, as strongly as 

 anything which has been said, the ease with which novel and 

 important observations can be made upon insects. It is the 

 earnest hope of the writer that some student will take up, for 

 example, the large carpenter ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, 

 study it most carefully and compare his observations with those 

 of European writers upon congeneric forms, although, as a 

 matter of fact, representatives of this particular genus are not 

 abundant in Europe. Whoever begins the careful study of this 

 large carpenter ant must first read Dr. H. C. McCook's interesting 

 paper entitled "Notes on the Architecture and Habits of the 

 Pennsylvania Carpenter Ant " published in Vol. V. of the Trans- 

 actions of the American Entomological Society, pp. 277-289. 



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