1881.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 23 



inferences without the facts. They are not unable to move, and 

 in point of fact do occasionally move their positions. Those 

 -whose abdomens are but half or even two-thirds the full globose, 

 I have frequently seen coming out of their chambers, ascending 

 the galleries and moving freely about the surface. Those with 

 full globes can move about with no little agility when placed upon 

 a table, or when exposed in their nests to some unusual danger or 

 alarm. In the nests they slide along from point to point, moving 

 their feet sidewise, and so make changes of position. 



Fallen Honey-bearers Helpless. — If once they loosen their 

 hold, however, and fall to the floor, they seem ordinarily helpless to 

 recover. Numbers of my full honey-bearers dropping from various 

 causes, or shaken down by thoughtless visitors, laid upon the 

 floor helpless, resting upon the rotund abdomen, bodies up, 

 antennae and feet in motion, and seeming exceedingly uncomfort- 

 able. Those who so fell as to have some object upon which to 

 lay their feet, as a clod or the surface of the jar, fared better. In 

 very favorable positions a few recovered their roost. But as a 

 rule they were helpless, remained stationary, and so passed their 

 lives, which were evidently shortened by their position, although 

 some of them lived thus several months (see PI. YI, fig. 32). 



lY. — Source of Honey-Supply. 



The rotunds do not elaborate the honey, as has frequently been 

 asserted. I was not for a moment misled by this fancy, being 

 satisfied that, in the nature of things they were sedentary, and that 

 their immense abdomens were charged by regurgitation from 

 the workers who were the honey gatherers. But whence do they 

 obtain their supplies ? 



Not from Aphides, at this season of the year at least. I 

 searched every bush and shrub in the vicinity, including large 

 numbers of wild rose bushes, but failed to find any of these familiar 

 and useful Emmet " herds." Certainly, at least, the honey ants 

 were not there drawing supplies from them. It was not possible 

 to trace the ants to these or other sources of food supply during 

 the day, for I found very soon that they were nocturnal insects. 

 Their nests were as silent, and to all appearance empty, as an 

 abandoned habitation, during the daytime. I accordingly stationed 

 myself beside a nest to await the nightfall. This nest was located 

 upon the summit of a ridge which from a peculiar formation of a 



