i8 93 . THE HABITS OF ANTS, WASPS, AND BEES. 269. 



them the material of the "garden," even to the smallest fragments, 

 and rebuild the structure in their new abode. 



Herr Aloller finds that ants of the genera Apterostigma and 

 Cyphomyrmex are also " mushroom gardeners," but these do not cut 

 leaves to form their fungus-beds. They use instead, wood, grain, or 

 dung. Four species of ants of the former genus cultivate one fungus, 

 and two species of the latter another. Although these fungi all belong 

 to the same group, the ants, even when hungry, are found to refuse 

 disdainfully the food of another genus. Even the species of ants of 

 the same genus, which cultivate the same species of fungus, produce 

 by different methods of culture a difference in the nature of their 

 special food bodies. Those grown by the species of A tta are adjudged 

 the prize by their patient observer in the fungicultural contest. 



Observations by Herr Moller on another genus of ants 

 (Acanthognathus) have been recently recorded by Professor Forel (5), 

 Besides teeth at the extremity of their mandibles, the workers possess, 

 at the base of each of those appendages, a long, curved tooth, directed 

 inwards and downwards. When at work building, or carrying eggs, 

 these ants have their mandibles widely apart, sticking out on either 

 side at right angles to the body. When in this position, the ends of 

 the basal curved teeth just touch each other, and are used by the 

 insect to carry the egg, or a piece of earth for building. When 

 frightened, the ant brings her mandibles sharply together, and the 

 basal teeth are then, of course, crossed. 



A most interesting summary of what is known of the various 

 kinds of ants' nests has, also, lately been published by Professor 

 Forel (6), in which he gives the result of observations by himself and 

 other naturalists. Nests made in holes or under stones, nests dug in 

 or built of earth, wood, etc., are described and illustrated from the 

 work of European and exotic ants. The transition between nests 

 built of a papery substance formed of fragments of earth, wood, etc., 

 joined by a secreted cement, to those composed of fine threads drawn 

 out from such cement, and used for binding leaves together, is traced 

 through a succession of species. 



Lubbock, in the work already referred to, remarked that it was 

 strange that the exact manner in which new colonies of ants are 

 founded should remain uncertain. He suggested that a young queen,, 

 after the nuptial flight, might join an old nest, or found a new colony, 

 either by herself, or with the assistance of a number of workers- 

 Professor Forel, in the paper just mentioned, considers it established 

 that new colonies are founded by solitary females, or by several 

 associated together. Mr. W. W. Smith (7) has lately studied the 

 rise of ant-colonies in New Zealand. The nuptial flight there takes 

 place in March, and the rise of societies was studied through the 

 winter months following. A pair (male and female) or several pairs 

 were found to be associated to form the new colonies ; and these 

 always selected sites, under stones or elsewhere, already occupied by 



