LITERARY NOTICES. 



Pricer, Jno. L. The Life History of the Carpenter Ant. Biol. Bull., vol. 14, pp. 177-218, 1908. 



This paper, which is interesting to both the biologist and the psychologist, embod- 

 ies the results of a year's study of the carpenter ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus 

 and C. ferrugineus). The contents of numerous nests collected during the winter 

 were examined and counted, and colonies were raised from individual females cap- 

 tured immediately after their nuptial flight. The subject is treated under the fol- 

 lowing heads: "Life history of the colony," "polymorphism," "division of labor," 

 "food," "relation to light and color," "guests and parasites," "instinct and intel- 

 ligence." 



The author confirms the statement of Dr. Wheeler' and others that the fertil- 

 ized female fasts from the time it enters its brood chamber until its first offspring 

 have reached maturity. 



He also agrees with Dr. Wheeler^ that the polymorphism of this ant is onto- 

 genetic. At the time of laying, all eggs of fertilized females are essentially alike. 

 The size of the resulting offspring depends upon the quantity of food fed the larvae. 



Mr. Pricer's observations seem to support the view that sexually mature indi- 

 viduals are not produced until the colony is more than two years old, and that the 

 brood of females produced one summer remains in the nest until the following 

 spring. 



The food of the ants consists chiefly of honey dew obtained from aphids. But 

 this is supplemented by insect food and plant juices. The aphids are never domes- 

 ticated, nor are their eggs stored in the nest over winter. Insects are never captured 

 alive and the head is the only part of insects fed upon that is ever carried into the 

 nest. 



In his experiments on light the author employed the much used devise of a cen- 

 tral corridor, on each side of which are rooms illuminated by light passing through 

 glasses of different colors He used deep red, green, deep blue, indigo-blue and a 

 cell of carbon disulfid (this latter to exclude the ultra-violet rays). At the begin- 

 ning of the experiment these glasses were arranged in reverse order in the two sets 

 of rooms. During the experiments the glasses were manipulated in various ways. 

 As a control he used ants the eyes of which had been rendered opaque. The ants 

 preferred to collect under the red glass, and they avoided the blue and light of shorter 

 wave length. In this respect his results harmonize with those of Lubbock and Miss 

 Fielde; but Pricer's experiments seem to show that the ants perceive the red, etc., 

 whereas Miss Fielde^ claims that ants are blind to all rays of greater wave length 

 than the violet. 



1 Wheeler, Wm. M. On the founding of colonies by queen ants, etc., Bull. Am. Mus. of Nat. Hist., 

 vol. 22, p. 39, 1906. 



2 Wheeler, Wm. M. The polymorphism of ants. 7fe/J., vol. 23, pp. 66-75, 1907. 



3 Fielde, A. M. Notes on an ant. Proc. Acad. Set. Phil., vol. 54, p. 615, 1902; Effects of light-rays 

 on an ant. Biol. Bull., vol. 6, p. 309, 1904. 



