44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1881. 



not wlioll}^ dependent for this n]ion their fellows. In one of m^' 

 formicaries, the rotunds when placed within the light, began to 

 cleanse themselves, without leaving their perch. They held en 

 to the roof by the two hind legs and one of the middle pair, and 

 used the other middle and the two fore legs in the usual manner 

 of ants.i They "were quite able thus to draw a leg through the 

 spui'-comb of one of the fore-feet ; to brush the head, etc. 



In one case I even saw a honey-bearer performing the offices of 

 the toilet upon a worker. The latter held her mandibles apart, 

 while the rotund licked the mouth parts ; and from thence pro- 

 ceeded to the vertex of the head. Both insects were in a semi- 

 rampant posture the meanwhile. 



Fraternal Relations with Sister Colonies. — A few experi- 

 ments upon several nests quite widely separated, showed that as 

 in the case of some other ants,^ the inmates (of the same species) 

 fraternized completely, and engaged within the artificial nests, in 

 the care of the larvae, cocoons, honey-bearers, and in all other 

 formicary duties. 



IX. Economy of the Honey-Bearers. 



What is the economy of the remarkable structure and habit 

 presented in the honey-bearer ? The naturalist is shut out from 

 all observations in natural site that might give answer to this 

 question. But from studies thus far made upon my artificial 

 formicaries, from structure, and from reasonable analogy, I ha^e 

 little hesitation in saying that the economy is precisel}^ that of 

 the bee in storing honey within the comb. The difference lies in 

 the fact that the bee puts her store within inorganic, the ant 

 within organic matter ; the bee within the waxen cell which her 

 industry constructs, the ant within the living tissue of her sister 

 formicarian, provided to her hands by the Creator. The honey 

 is held in reserve within its globular store-room of animal tissue 

 for times when the workers fail to gather food, or the supply fails 

 in Nature. The queen, the virgin females, the males, the teem- 

 ing nursery of white grubs, are all and always altogether 

 dependent upon others for nurture. During the winter months 

 and in seasons when the honey supply is scant or wholly fails, 



1 See Toilet Habits of Ants, in Agricultural Ants of Texas, Ch. VIII, 

 p. 135. 



2 Mound-Making Ants of the Alleghenies, p. 281. 



