AMERICAN UYMENOPTERA. 279 



commissary purposes. Ants were also found carrying the blossoms 

 of plants and flowers. Into a little colony, settled within an artificial 

 formicary, was introduced a large female wolf spider {Lycosa levta), 

 one of the most powerful and ferocious species. The ants attacked 

 her with demoniacal fury, and in a moment had torn off her limbs, 

 and were hurrying the mutilated body into the galleries. The attack 

 showed a courage that was quite characteristic, but the method and 

 results I was wholly unprepared for, and can only be sufficiently ac- 

 counted for on the supposition of experience with such foes, and 

 familiarity with such food. The sheriff of the county, whom I met 

 casually, assured me that, when he was a boy, he had snared a garter 

 snake, nearly two feet long and fastened it to one of these ant hills. 

 The serpent was instantly attacked, and in two days the bare skeleton 

 was found upon the hill, the flesh having been entirely removed. This 

 was doubtless used for food, but possibly, may have been removed as a 

 matter of cleanliness, as no offensive matter is permitted to remain 

 upon the hills. A young gentleman, in whose statement I have confi- 

 dence, informed me that he had frequently amused himself by watch- 

 ing these ants catch flies, which was done by a quick spring, very 

 much after the habit of vaulting spiders. It thus appears that the 

 fallow ants fulfill their special duty as natural scavengers, and besides 

 the honey-dew of aphides, which is their " staff of life," are able to 

 prey upon insects, arachnids and even reptilia. This certainly shows 

 a range of appetite which fairly entitles them to rank as omniverous 

 animals. I did not observe them preying upon their congeners, after 

 the manner of some other ants. The only appearance of cannibalism 

 was developed by dropping an ant that had been accidentally crushed 

 upon a hill. The carcass was seized by a worker, who after apparently 

 feeding for a while upon the juices of the crushed abdomen, bore the 

 body away. The dead bodies of their lellows, as with all ants whose 

 habits 1 have observed, are removed to some separate spot, and some- 

 times little heaps of carcasses are deposited together as though some 

 rude idea of a charnel-house had entered the little creatures' heads. 



Water Supply.— Water is necessary for ants as well as food. I 

 very much wished to test the supposition that they sink their galleries 

 through the light surface soil to the moist earth, or to the water 

 gathered upon the underlying clay. But we were not prepared to 

 undertake the labor re(|uired. 1"he following pertinent observation, 

 however, is worthy of record. One day while bending over in close 

 examination of lecding stations at the roots of a tree, I chanced to 



