1881.J NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 65 



{Mexicanus) has of course yielded to that of Llave, modified, 

 liowever, from MeUigera to MelUger. The Colorado insects, upon 

 "which the studies of this paper are based, I have ventured to 

 regard as a new variety, and have named Myrmecocystus liortus- 

 deorum, and thus have retained Wesmael's name as a variety name. 



It will be well to state briefly the facts in the economy of these 

 insects indicated in the foregoing and other papers, in order to 

 mark precisely the new facts which have now been communicated 

 here. 



Llave 's information was all at second hand, he having made no 

 personal observations of the habits of Melliger. From a person 

 living at Dolores, a village in the vicinitj^ of the cit}^ of Mexico, 

 he learned : 



1. That the ants were popularly known under the name of 

 Busileras; 



2. That they do not erect heaps of earth at the entrance to their 

 nests ; 



3. That on opening the nest, a species of gallerj' is reached, to 

 the roof of which certain ants are suspended, packed one against 

 the other ; 



4. That these ants cover the roof as well as the wall of the 

 gallery. 



5. The women and children of the valley know these nests per- 

 fectly well, and frequently open them for the sake of the honey- 

 bearers, or rotunds. The honej' is sucked from the abdomen of the 

 rotunds, with great relish, at the nests ; or, if it is wished to pre- 

 serve them, they are lifted by the head and thorax and placed 

 upon plates, in which they grace the village feasts, and are eaten 

 as delicacies. 



6. The rotunds when thus placed together, stir around, lay hold 

 of and tear one another, and finally end life by bursting. 



7. The skin of the abdomen, which binds the segments together, 

 is so thin, and the upper coat so distended, on account of the 

 quantity of honey which it encloses, that the least pressure suf- 

 fices to cause the ants to disgorge. 



8. When they do not so disgorge, that is, by elevating the head 

 and thorax, the honey diminishes, and the ants eat it. 



9. Dr. Llave observed, moreover, from specimens of the ants 

 sent to him, that there were difterent castes of workers and degrees 

 of distension in the abdomens, and 



