HYMENOPTERA 947 



In the blood-red slave-maker the gaster is black or brown and 

 there is a notch in the margin of the clypeus. The nests of this 

 species are low obscure mounds of earth or are excavated under stones 

 or logs or around stumps. Many subspecies and varieties of this 

 species are recognized, some of which do not keep slaves. 



The shining amazon, Polyergus lucidus. — The species of the genus 

 Polyergus were named amazons by Pierre Huber on account of their 

 warring habits. Species of this genus occur in this country as well 

 as in Europe. The shining amazon is a beautiful, brilliant red species 

 widely distributed in the Eastern and Middle states. The species 

 of this genus are slave-makers that have become absolutely dependent 

 on their slaves. They cannot build their own nests or feed themselves 

 or care for their young, but have only retained the power of fighting 

 to get more slaves. Their mandibles are sickle-shaped and fitted 

 only as weapons of offence. Like Formica sanguinea, these ants make 

 periodical forays on the colonies of other species of Formica and carry 

 home the worker larvffi and pupse. The workers developed from 

 these perform all of the labors of the colony except that of the making 

 of forays on the colonies of other ants, in which they take no part. 

 The young queens of Polyergus, being unable to work, establish new 

 colonies of their species by securing adoption in some small weak 

 colony of another species of Formica after killing its queen by piercing 

 her head. 



The corn-field ant, Ldsius niger americdnus. — To the genus Lasius 

 belong several common species of small brown ants that make small 

 mounds in various situations. These ants are fond of honey-dew 

 and not only care for the aphids from which they obtain it but collect 

 the eggs of the aphids and store them in their nests through the winter, 

 and in the spring place the recently hatched plant-lice on the stems 

 and roots of the plants on which they feed. A well-known species 

 of this genus is the corn-field ant, the habits of which are discussed in 

 the account of the corn-root aphis, p. 419. 



The honey-ants, Myrmecocystus. — The ants of this genus are found 

 in the arid regions of the Southwest, from the city of Mexico to 

 Southern California and to Denver, Colorado. They have received 

 the name of honey-ants from the remarkable fact that with them 

 some of the workers function as honey-pots or reservoirs for storing 

 the honey-dew collected by other workers, from nectar excreting 

 galls on trees and from aphids and coccids. The individuals in which 

 the honey-dew is stored are known as repletes. 

 The workers that collect the honey-dew swallow 

 it and carry it in their crop to the nest. There 

 they regurgitate it and feed it to a replete, which 

 in turn swallows it and retains it in its crop. The 

 crop of the replete becomes so greatly distended 

 that the gaster becomes a translucent sphere, as Fig. 1181. 



large as a pea, on the surface of which the sclerites 

 appear as isolated patches separated by the tense, pelucid, yellowish, 

 intersegmental membrane (Fig. 1 181). The repletes are unable to go 



