mVERTEBRATA, CRYPTOaAMIA, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 243 



underground galleries and chambers, cut through the gravel and 

 sandstone to a distance of nearly 8 feet in length, 2 to 4 feet 

 beneath the surface, and about 10 to 12 inches in width at the widest 

 part. 



The honey bearers were found hanging in groups to the roofs of 

 the honey chambers by their feet ; their large globular abdomens 

 looking like bunches of small Delaware grapes. About eight to ten 

 chambers, containing each an average of about thirty honey bearers, 

 were found. The workers cared for the honey bearers when the 

 chambers were opened, and dragged them into the unopened parts. 



The ants proved to be nocturnal in their habits, remaining within 

 doors until after sunset, about 7.30 p.m. each evening, when the workers 

 issued forth in column, and dispersed among the clumps of scrub oak, 

 Quercus undulata. Here they sought the galls made by a species of 

 Cijnips which grows abundantly on the bushes, and licked therefrom 

 a sweet exudation which issued in small transparent beads from the 

 surface. From 11.30 p.m. to about 3.30 a.m., when the first streakings 

 of dawn began to aj)pear, the workers returned home, laden with the 

 honey. This ai)j)ears to be fed to the sedentary honey bearers by 

 disgorging it in the usual way, and remains within the globular 

 abdomens as a store for future use. The economy of this habit appears 

 to resemble that of the bee ; the exception being that the bee's honey 

 is stored within the inorganic substance of a waxen cell, while the 

 ant's is lodged within the organic tissue of the living insect. 



Phosphorescence of the Glowworm.* — M. Jousset de Bellesme 

 has been led to make fresh experiments on the light of the glow- 

 worm, as neither Matteucci nor any other observer has taken into 

 account the will of the animal, or attempted to eliminate this cause of 

 uncertainty, so that when, for example, a glowworm was placed in 

 carbonic acid, they could not decide whether the phosphorescence 

 ceased because the surrounding medium did not allow of its produc- 

 tion, or because the animal voluntarily refused to shine. 



The author therefore dei)rived the insects of control over the 

 light by removing the cephalic ganglia and replaced the voluntary 

 excitation by tlie passage of a moderate electric current in the trunk 

 or luminous organ. This produced unfailingly a brilliant phosplio- 

 rescence. In this way lie confirmed Matteucci's view as to oxygen 

 being essential to the production of the light. The insects prepared 

 as above described, when i)lunged into carbonic acid, niti-ogen, or 

 hydrogen, and excited by electricity, never became luminous. 



It may thercfure be regarded as certain that the large cells with 

 granular protoplasm constituting the parenchyma of the phospho- 

 rescent apparatus, produce a substajico which becomes luminous in 

 contact with the air introduced through the numerous trachea) inter- 

 secting that apparatus. 



To ascertain. what this material is, it is necessary to isolate and 

 analyze it. The resemblance of the light to that of phosphorus has 

 led sevei'al clieniists to seek for that substance in the luminous appa- 



* ' C(>ni[ilca lUiulii.s,' xv. (ISSO) ji. IJIS. 



li '1 



