AMERICAN HYMENOPTERA. 



273 



Fig. 



-W. -major, F. rufa. 



follows : male and female six-sixteenths of an inch, worker-major 6ve- 



sixtceutlis, worker-minor four-sixteenths, 

 dwarf three-sixteenths. The color of all 

 those, except the male is the same, the 

 head, thorax and lej^s varyinji; from an 

 orange-yellow, to a yellowish-red. The 

 abdomen, except when distended with 

 honey-dew, is black. The wings of the 

 male and female afe pale, smoky color. 

 The male is wholly black, and is not so 

 robust in form as the female, and has a 

 smaller head. The illustrations fairly rep- 

 resent the general details of form in the 

 male, Fig. ') ; female, Fig. 6; and worker, Fig. 7; the lines beneath 

 the latter figure show the natural length of the three worker forms.* 

 A technical descri[)tion of these insects will be found at the close of 

 this paper. 



Food, Feeding Places, Feeding.— As the life of any one hill is 

 substantially repeated in all the others, let us take our stand, for 

 example, before the large mound at Fl. II. The work of construction 

 as above described is being pressed forward upon all parts of the 

 surface. Issuing from, and thronging into the doors that skirt the 

 base are two columns of workers. Their fellows are hovering around 

 the gates, hurrying backward and forward upun their several duties; 

 but these columns keep up a steady march and countermarch, without 

 visible diminution of numbers and (with a single exception which is 

 recorded hereafter), without cessation day or night. One of them 

 stretches off to the southwest, disappearing at intervals under flat 

 stones, appearing again and crossing the top of similar stones, inter- 

 secting the lines of workers busy about the small surrounding hills, 

 and, penetrating the jungle of grass beyond, is finally distributed 

 among a number of young trees not far distant. The other column 

 leads off to the southeast, up the hill a distance of eight rods, to an 

 oak tree having a girth of twelve inches, which stands by the stone 

 wall or fence that marks the limit of the field. This "avenue" (as 

 we may designate the path which such a column pursues), keeps a 

 well nigh straight course. It crosses at one point a footh-path used 



■*The cuts in these pages are reproduced by photo-engraving from my own 

 rough drawings, except these three figures (or which I am indebted to Dr. Edw. 

 J. Nolan, the Secretary and Librarian of the Acad. Xat. Sciences, Phila. 



