ORDER HYMENOPTERA 307 



from the aphids. They store up grain in some instances, 

 and use this grain to some extent at least as a food 

 supply. 



One of the species — the honey ants — collect honey and 

 store it in the stomachs of certain individuals of the colony. 

 The bodies of these individuals become very much distended 

 and the abdomen becomes large and spherical and these 

 keep the food for a part of the year. This ant occurs in the 

 plateau regions of Colorado, particularly in the Garden of 

 the Gods. The volume by McCook on these ants is an 

 especially interesting account of animal adaptation. Also 

 Lubbock's book on A7its, Bees and Wasps gives many 

 interesting experiments, but his observations indicated that 

 while there is an adaptation to complex conditions they are 

 not comparable to the activities of human beings. 



There are many species — little red ants, those occurring 

 in gardens, and walks, the house ants, and the large car- 

 penter ants, which form nests in hollow logs. The queen is 

 quite a large insect and usually with wings entirely wanting. 

 Large red ants and large black ants construct hills for their 

 nests, sometimes three to six or eight inches high, and 

 perhaps twelve to eighteen inches across the top. This red 

 ant is a slave-making species, going out on forays and 

 capturing black ants which they force to carry on the labor 

 of the colony. Some species are said to have carried the 

 slave-making habit to such an extreme that they are unable 

 to get along without the slaves and even require slaves to 

 go out and capture new slaves. 



Field Ants.— One of the important species is the little 

 field ant which is associated with the corn-root louse and 

 which has been named in connection with the discussion of 

 the aphid. This species is very widely distributed through- 

 out the United States and wherever corn is grown and the 

 corn-root louse is present it constitutes an important factor 

 in the abundance and destructiveness of the root louse. 



The Argentine ant {Iridomyrmex Innnilis Mayr) is one of 

 the recently introduced pests and one which is liable to 

 become distributed to cover the Southern States and possibly 



