30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP [1881. 



to this writer, a, little more water than the honey of bees, and has 

 therefore somewhat greater limpidity. 



Fortunately, the com])osition of this ant-honey has been sub- 

 jected to a thorough chemical anal^'sis by a competent authority, Dr. 

 Chas. M. Wetherill.^ The experiments were made at the request 

 of Dr. liCid}'^, from specimens of 31. melliger-mexicanus collected 

 hy Mr. Langstroth at Matamoras, Mexico.^ These ants showed 

 the variations observed b}^ me in the distension of the abdomen, 

 and the amount and color of the honey. Six of the average-sized 

 honey-bearers were weighed, and showed the average weight of the 

 honey-bearer's bod}^ alone (without honey) to be 0*048 grammes, 

 and the average of hone}'' in a single ant 0'3942 grammes. The 

 amount of honej" was therefore 8*2 times greater in weight than 

 the bod}^ without tlie hone3^ The density calculated for the ants 

 filled with honey was 1*28, and for the bodies alone r05. Dr. 

 WetherilFs calculations expressed in English Troy weight would 

 allow about six grains for the weight of each honey-bearer. It 

 would thus require about one thousand (960) honey-bearers to 

 3'ield one pound of honey (Troy weight), or about twelve hundred 

 (1166) to yield a market or avoirdupois pound. 



The sj'rup extracted from the ants had an agreeable sweet taste, 

 and an odor like that of the syrup of squills. When set aside as 

 removed it showed no trace of crystallization to the naked e^^e or 

 under the microscope. Under high powers fragments of organic 

 tissue were seen. When evaporated by the heat of steam, it dried 

 to a gumni}^ mass, which did not exhibit traces of crystallization 

 after standing for a couple of weeks. 



This mass was yery hydroscopic, becoming quickly soft from 

 the absorption of water from the atmosphere. It dissolved with- 

 out residue in ordinary alcohol, leaving a residue in nearly absolute 

 alcohol. These solutions did not crystallize when set aside. 

 They had exactly the smell of perfumed bay rum. After various 

 tests, which are described. Dr. Wetherill analyzed by combustion 

 with oxide of copper and chlorate of potassa a portion of the gum- 

 .ke substance which resulted after the ant-honej^ had been left in 

 v^acuo for two weeks. As this was not perfectly hard, but of a 

 sticky nature, it was necessary to introduce it into the combustion 



1 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., Vol. VI, pp. Ill, 112, 1852. 

 '^ I have some of these still in good condition after twenty-nine years' 

 preservation in alcohol. 



