2IO TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



becomes so distended that it resembles a transparent bubble. 

 When the ants are thus blown out they cannot walk, but remain 

 fixed or suspended to the floors of the galleries of their nests. 

 The women and children of the country dig them up and enjoy 

 their honey, and it is by no means unusual for these insects 

 to be served at table, the head and the thorax being removed, 

 so that the sweet portions resemble little isolated bladders on 

 a plate. One would almost fancy that this syrupy secretion 

 must collect for some purpose, and probably these very corpulent 

 individuals are the nurses of the establishment. 



Many of the ants belonging to tropical countries are classified 

 under the group of the Ponerites, and one of them, TypJdopona 

 Oraiiiensis, which is found in Algiers, forms small colonies ; it is 

 of a pale red colour, and lives under stones. The males and 

 females are unknown, but the workers all appear to be blind, they 

 never come to the light, and they labour constantly in their dark 

 galleries. How they obtain their food, and of what it may 

 consist, are matters for future observation. 



The Myrmicites are found in Europe and in America, and the 

 ants of this division are usually very small in temperate climates, 

 but in the inter-tropical regions of America many of the species 

 attain a very considerable bulk, and are also very abundant. 

 There are two forms of workers in the nests of the different 

 kinds of Myrmicites ; in one the insects have a small head, and 

 in the other a very large one. This difference in the size of the 

 head has been frequently recognised amongst the workers of 

 the nests in South America, and it appears to be the case also 

 with a European ant. The ants with large heads are called 

 Soldier Ants, in consequence of the expressed opinion of travellers, 

 who assert that they are particularly devoted to the defence 

 of the nest. The supposition that these robust and well-armed 

 individuals might be males has not yet been justified by anato- 

 mical investigations. M. Lespes has noticed in the European 

 species that both kinds of these neuter workers do the same sort 

 of work in the interior of the nest. A late discovery made by 

 Professor Schenck has shown that there is a kind of Myrmica 

 whose mandibles are made like those of the Polyergi, and are 

 therefore useless as working instruments. M. Mayr has separated 



