60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1881. 



dition supposed to be peculiar to our American Melliger, obtained 

 in an Australian species belonging to a genus quite removed from 

 Myrmecocystus. Mr. Waller could tell me nothing of the habits 

 or luibitat of C. inflatus, and Lubbock has no account of an}'. 

 But tlie congeners of the Australian insect are " Carpenter ants," 

 quite generally making tlieir formicaries in the roots and trunks 

 of trees, and thus in economy as well as structure differ from M. 

 hortus-deorum. This widening of the range within which this 

 hitherto phenomenonal condition of the abdomen is found, not 

 only raises the suggestion which Sir John makes of an independent 

 origin of the modification in the two species, but also adds to 

 the probability that the modification may have qriginated in the 

 natural mode which I have described. 



It is to be regretted that Lubbock did not make an examination 

 of the alimentary canal of his species, which, with tlie material 

 and resources at his command, would doubtless have been highly 

 satisfactory. However, I undertook from my limited material, to 

 make at least so mucli of a stud}^ of the digestive organs as would 

 permit some comparison with results obtained from Hortus- 

 deorum. I had but one perfect specimen, which is figured Plate 

 •X, fig. 74. The abdomen of this example was removed and care- 

 fully mounted without rupturing the abdominal walls. The 

 result is shown at Plate IX, fig. 71, and as will at once be seen, 

 corresponds with those obtained fully from Hortus-deorum, and 

 as far as pursued, from Mexicanus also. The crop (fig. 71) fills 

 the cavity of the abdomen, and the rest of the digestive organs 

 are seen crowded into the anal region. The gizzard has the 

 general features of that of Hortus-deorum, but has marked charac- 

 teristics, quite identical with those of the genus Camponotus as 

 pointed out by Forel.' The sepals are not deflected at the anterior 

 pole, as in the lily-shaped sepals of Hortus-deorum, but are clavate 

 and straight. 



This fact certainly strengthens the conclusion arrived at con- 

 cerning the American species of honey-bearer, viz., that the rotund 

 has been developed by natural habit from the ordinary worker, 

 and that the possibilities of such a condition exist in the structure 

 and functions of all nectar-feeding ants. Why the extraordinarily 

 distended crop seen in the honey-ant should be limited to two 



' Etudes Myrmecologiques, Bull. Soc. Vaud. de Sci. Nat. 1878. PI 

 XXIII, fig. 1. 



