THE MYRMECOCYSTUS. 



209 



through the breach. Three or four minutes afterwards the red 

 ants came out again in great haste, each one holding between its 

 mandibles a larva or a nymph. They took the same route home- 

 \vards, but not in the same military array. This is a clear case 

 of slave making ; and after a time the red ants live in peace 

 with and enjoy the results of the labours of their black workers. 

 Under these circumstances the red ant's nest is said to consist 

 of amazons, or legionaries, and workers. It is a wonderful instinct 

 that causes the red Polycrgi — which cannot work the soil and 

 construct underground edifices, and which cannot nourish their 

 own larvae — to select workers from the nests of other species to 

 do all this. They never seek adult workers, for they would never 



JMyrinecocystus Mcxica n us. 

 The ants are represented as seen from above and sideways, natural size and magnified. 



Stop in a strange home, so they look out for nymphs and larvae, 

 which never attempt to depart from the nest when they have 

 completed their metamorphosis, but set to work to build cells 

 as well as to feed the larvae of their captors. A very curious 

 ant is found in Mexico, and was described nearly thirty years 

 since by a Belgian naturalist, M. Wesmael. The abdomen of 

 this ant {JMyrmecocysttis Mexicamis) can be distended to a pro- 

 digious extent with a sort of honey. They are common near 

 the town of Dolores, and are known there under the name of 

 Busileras, and they live in underground nests, which are not 

 distinguishable from without. These insects do not present any 

 unusual distension of the body in early life, but after a while 

 it is observed in a certain number of individuals. When the 

 accumulation of syrup is very great in the intestines, the body 



o 



