1881.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHTLADELPinA. 45 



perhaps during the long rain}^ seasons, the entire famih* must 

 have food. Precisely as the bee goes to the honey-comb in such 

 emergencies, the hone3-ant goes to the hone^^-bearer. 



There is, to be sure, a corresponding difference in the mode of 

 eliciting the stored sweets. The bee brealcs the cell and laps 

 the honey. The hungry ant places her mouth to that of the 

 bearer, from whose mouth it is received as it is regurgitated from 

 the hone}' crop. The muscles of the abdomen act upon that 

 organ as does the pressure of a lady's hand upon the eau-de- 

 cologne within the elastic bulb of a toilet jet or spraying bottle. 

 It is forced up, gathers in a little globule, a honey-dewdrop, upon 

 the filament-like maxillse under the jaw, whence it is lapped off 

 by the waiting pensioners. The admirable adaptation by which 

 the ant's structure is fitted for this function, will be noted further 

 on. It may be well to state such facts as appeared in various 

 efforts to arrive at the truth of the above opinion, viz., that the 

 honej'-bearers serve as store-houses of food for the inmates of the 

 nest. If these facts fall short of a complete deraonsti-ation, they 

 at least form a chain of evidence which creates a verv strono- 

 probability. 



1. Regurgitation of Honey. — On the occasion of the dis- 

 covery that the ants collected nectar from the oak-galls, a branch 

 upon wliich the foragers were at work was removed to my tent 

 for stud}'. First, however, it was taken to the home site, and a 

 dwarf worker coaxed upon a leaf and laid on the nest. She 

 seemed much confused, and evidently did not at first recoo-nize 

 the fact that she was at home. The workers around the gall, who 

 .were quite easily distinguished b}' the smaller size of their 

 abdomens, also showed marks of surprise -at this im expected 

 arrival. However, two dwarfs and a minor soon sufficiently 

 recovered their equanimity to arrest their fellow and " take toll " 

 from her mouth of the syrup with which her crop was well 

 charged. (PI. Y, fig. 24.) The mode was that which is common 

 among ants, and has been fulty described.^ A worker major was 

 next transferred from the bush to the nest, and showed the same 

 confusion at this unexpected " railroading " home. She also was 

 tolled b}^ the ants clustering upon the mound. In both cases I 

 saw the drop of liquid honey sparlding as it passed, a lantern 

 having been placed on each side, thus throwing light full}- upon 



^ See Mound-Making Ants, p. 275. 



