THE ANTS AND THEIR GUESTS. 



By P. E. Wasmann, S. J., 

 Ignatius College, Valkenburg, Holland. 



[With 10 plates.] 



One hundred years of biological investigation of ants have passed 

 since, in 1810, the Genevan Peter Huber published his ''Recherches 

 sur les moeurs des Fourmis indigenes." Therefore, since we cele- 

 brate tliis year a centenary of ant biology, let us fu'st briefly review 

 the development of myrmecology. Its character is a truly interna- 

 tional one, in that investigators of the most distinct countries and 

 nations have participated in it. 



The classification of ants, already founded by Latreille, received a 

 new impetus through Gustave Mayr about the middle of the previous 

 century. Toward its completion August Forel, Carlo Emery, Ernest 

 Andre,W. M. Wheeler, Ruzsky,Santschi, and others have distinguished 

 themselves, so that we now know more than 5,000 species and sub- 

 species, living and fossil, in this family. The anatomy of ants has been 

 greatly advanced through the older works of Meinert, Forel, etc., and 

 particularly through the numerous publications of Charles Janet. 

 Recently one has turned also to the microscopic study of the devel- 

 opment of the polar bodies within the eggs of ants. However, that 

 which interests us most hero is the development of bionomics, the 

 knowledge of the behavior of ants. 



The work of the father of biological ant study, Peter Huber, has 

 been successfully continued by August Forel and later by Rudolf 

 Brun in Switzerland, by Carlo Emery in Italy, by Sir John lAibbock 

 (Lord Avebury) and recently by Horace Donisthoiiic in England, by 

 Gottfried Adlerz in Sweden, by Ernest Andre, H. Pieron, and most 

 especially by Charles Janet in France, in North America by McCook, 

 later on by Miss A. Fielde, Miss Buckingham, and through numerous 

 important works by WilHam Morton Wheeler, in Tunisia by F. 

 Santschi, in Algeria by V. Cornetz, in Russia by Karawaiew, in Japan 

 by M. Yano, in Brazil by H. v. Ihering, E. Goeldi, and G. Huber, in 

 Germany by Viehmeycr, P^scherich, and Reichcnsperger, in Belgium 



1 Translated by permission from I" Congrfes International d'Entomolopic, Bruxelles (August, 1910) 

 M<5moiros, vol. 2, pp. 209-232. With emendations and additions by the author. 



455 



