Social Insects. 69 



ning over the trees and shrubs and other plants, searching for plant-hce, 

 from which they gather the sweet rejectamenta, gorging tliemselves fre- 

 quently to such an extent that ^they return home with difficulty. This 

 honey is used chielly for feeding tlie larv;e. 



HoNKY Ants. — ^There is really but one Honey Ant, strictly speaking, viz, 

 Mi/rmecocyslas melligcr Llave {M. ■mcxicanii'^ Westm.), in North America, anil 

 this ranges from Mexico to Colorado. Other species occur in other parts of 

 the world, with somewhat similar habits, and one is especially mentioned 

 by Lubbock from Australia {Oinipoiwlattiiijkdn.'i Lubb.) wluch lias undergone 

 ]3recLsely the same modifications, though belonging to a distinct genus, a 

 most interesting lact, since it shows tiiat the moditication has arisen inde- 

 pendently. The honey collected and stored by these ants has little value 

 commercially, tirst, because of its ratliei' jjoor (juality ; secondly, because of 

 its small quantity — barely more than lialf a pint to each colony — obtainable ; 

 and, thirdly, because of the difficulty of colonizing or in any way commer- 

 cially manijiulating the anfes. The insect must be crushed to obtain the 

 honey. Yet it is sought for by the INIexican Indians, and used to a con- 

 siderable extent. The formicaries are little truncateil cones from two to 

 three inches higb, and usually less than a foot m diameter. They have a 

 tubular channel, a few inches in diameter, leading from the central opening 

 to the interior, to a depth of six inches or more below the general surface. 

 Here are often found one or more dome-like vaults or honey-chambers, 

 about an inch deep by about tlu'ee mclies in width. Hanging from the 

 roughened roof of these chambers may, at any time, be found numbers of 

 the honey-bearers, with inimensely swollen abdomens and looking, when 

 congregated, like a series of small grapes or large currants, with the same 

 translucency which tliese possess. These individuals have little capacity 

 for movement, and indeed move but little. They are but living receptacles 

 of the sweets which are gathered by the real workers, and the food-supply 

 of the rest of the colony is only drawn from these stationary honey reserves, 

 or animated lioney pots, as Lubbock calls them, when necessity re(juiies. 

 The modifications are conlhied to the abdominal portion of the digestive 

 organs. The honey is gathered from a little Cynipid oak-gall which I have 

 described as Cynips <juercus-mdlana and which abounds on a small scrubby 

 oak {Quercus undulata) frequent in those regions. The ants ahvays work at 

 night, making their way in long strings to the nearest gall-bearing tree, the 

 branches of which they carefully search for the young and succulent galls 

 which secrete a small globule of a clear saccharine hijuid. The gathered 

 li(iuid is then, ujion the return to the formicary, emptied into the mouths 

 of those individuals which serve as honey stores. 



LKAF-curriNG Ants. — These are reju-esented almost solely by the genus 

 Atta, which abounds in tropical and sub-tropical countries, where the species 

 are dreaded by jolanters because of their great destructiveness to culti- 

 vated plants and trees. These ants have been denominate<l agricultural 

 ants, and recent observations have confirmed the explanation originally 

 urged by Belt, that the leaves are cut into pieces and gathered into small 

 heaps, as a nidus for the cultivation of a fungus (Rozites) the mycelium 

 form of some nuishroom, so that they may be said to have anticipated man 

 in this kind of culture. The only two species belonging to the genus so far 

 observed in this country, are Alta ffnens Say, and AtUi (ardtgntda Buckley. 

 The former is our commonest species, occmTing in Texas. Its formicaries 

 are often twenty feet in diameter and several feet high, with numerous 

 smaller moundlets scattered over the surface. They have a crater-like de- 

 pression in the top, with a central opening running down into the formicary, 

 sometimes to a very great depth. Each formicary contains immense num- 

 bers of individuals, and during the day appears to be empty an<l deserted. 

 After dark, however, the entrances are opened, first by smaller workers 

 who remove the particles of sand and earth, then by individuals of larger 

 form who aid in removing the refuse. When the way has been sufficiently 

 cleared, the inmates pom" Ix^rth, both workers and soldiers, and march to 



