LITERATURE FOR 1911 ON THE BEHAVIOR OF 

 AXTS AND MYRMECOPHILES 



WILLIAM M. MANN 

 Bussey Institution, Harvard University 



Bouvier (i) observed the moving habits of the harvesting ant, 

 Messor barbarus, at Royon. This ant nests in very large colo- 

 nies in subterranean nests, of which one colony may have more 

 than a single one. When conditions in one nest are unfavorable, 

 the ants move into another taking with them their young and 

 the stores of grain. During the process of moving a pre- 

 liminary body of ants go out. These travel in two columns 

 from one nest entrance to the other. The transportation of 

 the larvae, pupae and the food supply is carried by a double 

 column also. The small crustacean, Platyarthriis hoffmanseggi, 

 which lives in great numbers in the nest entrances of barbarus, 

 follows the ants from one nest to another, probably finding the 

 new abode of the ants by the scent trail which these have left. 



Buckingham (2) made very extensive experiments on the 

 division of labor among ants as correlated with size and struc- 

 tural differences. The ants used were two species of Campo- 

 notus (C. americanus and C. herculeanus pictus) and three of 

 Pheidole {Ph. pilifera. Ph. vinelandica and Ph. dentata). Cam- 

 ponotus was chosen because of the presence of large and small 

 workers connected by intermediate forms, and Pheidole because 

 it has small workers and large soldiers, without intermediate 

 forms. 



A tabular arrangement of measurements of Camponotus 

 shows that there is a perfect gradation between the largest 

 and the smallest workers, both in size and in structure. Struc- 

 turally the queen is most closely related to the major worker. 

 In Pheidole, no such intermediate forms exist, and the queen 

 similarly is more like the soldier, though resembling the worker 

 in certain characteristics. 



In working with ants in artificial nests it was found that the 

 ants were stimulated by a rise of temperature rather than by 

 light, remaining quiet at 22 in a good light, but moving about 



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