ANIMAL SOCIETIES — SNODGRASS 435 



Island in the Panama Canal Zone has been extensively studied by T. C. 

 Schneirla (1956), and a good resume of the life and habits of the 

 ants is given by Schneirla and Piel (1948). 



The "nests" of the army ants are dense masses of the insects them- 

 selves, thousands of them closely clmging to one another by the claws 

 of their hind legs, and hanging up beneath some shelter. Within this 

 living mass of workers are the queen and larvae. The nest, however, 

 is not a mere mass assemblage of workers ; it is formed in a methodical 

 mamier. The first ants to arrive at a nesting site hang head down- 

 ward from a support by the claws of their hind legs. The next crawl 

 down headfirst over these, and so on until long strings of ants 

 are formed reaching to the ground. Then the intervening spaces are 

 filled, and the queen is housed in the upper part of the mass. 



During the period of brood production, a nest may be maintained 

 at one place as long as 3 weeks. The greatly swollen queen now de- 

 posits her eggs, which soon hatch and the larvae mature. At this time 

 little raiding is done. Wlien the new workers mature, however, they 

 seem to stimulate the others to renewed activity, and raiding begins 

 on a large scale, to continue for another 2 weeks or more. During 

 the raidmg period, a new nest, or bivouac, is formed every night some- 

 where along the line of march. At dusk the massed workers of the old 

 nest disentangle themselves and the host swarms out in army fashion 

 to find a new site, the end of the colmmi being brought up by workers 

 carrying larvae, and finally the queen with a band of attendants. 

 From the new bivouac the raiders depart at dawn the next morning. 



We have long been advised to consider the ways of the ant and be 

 wise. The ways of the ant, however, are past understanding. The 

 Micheners (1951, p. 240) have well said, "It is as foolish and futile 

 to advise men to look to the ants or the bees for wisdom in social 

 economy as it is to expect the insects to learn from man." G. C. 

 "Wheeler (1957) has also stressed the foolislmess of Solomon's advice. 

 Of course, we can learn a lot about the insects and their ways, but 

 mere knowledge of facts is not wisdom. 



THE BEES 



The bees include both solitary and social species. Societies have 

 been developed independently in various groups of bees, but they 

 have become best organized among the bumble bees (Bomhus), the 

 so-called stingless bees {Melipona and Trigona), and the honey bees 

 {Apis). Even these three groups, however, have little in common in 

 their social systems, which probablj'^ have been evolved separately 

 from solitary ancestors. The bees have one advantage over the ter- 

 mites, the ants, and the social wasps, which is that they produce their 

 own nest-building material, wax, from glands in their bodies. 



