19 
and workers are very nearly of the same size, and, except for the 
possession of wings by the former, look quite alike, while in other 
genera, like Leptogenys, the females, though wingless, are very 
different from the workers. Such facts might have served as indi- 
cations of considerable latitude of social specialization in the family 
as a whole, as abundantly shown when the kelep is added to the series. 
The Poneride with wingless females seem to ally the group still 
further with the Dorylide and Mutillide and increase the contrast 
with the true ants, where the wings still remain as essential for the 
females as for the males. It may be needless, perhaps, to add that 
it is the loss of the wings by the workers and by the queens which 
marks the course of recent evolution in the Hymenoptera as a whole, 
as in all other insects. The most primitive insects were winged; all 
the wingless insects are descended from winged ancestors. The fact 
that so small a proportion of the members of an ant colony have 
wings, and these for so short a time, tends to make it appear that the 
wings are a special provision, while in reality the specialization is 
all in the direction of winglessness. The ants are in this respect 
more primitive, since they have preserved a character which is being 
lost in the Poneridx and which has entirely disappeared in the 
Dorylide, Mutillide, and Thynnide.? 
The winglessness of the queens has been attained, however, by an 
evolutionary step distinct from that which resulted in wingless 
workers, and has a very different significance from the standpoint of 
the social organization of the species. 
The winglessness of the workers may be looked upon as a part of 
the general stunting and sterility of the individual for lack of ade- 
quate food. In the early stages of the development of a new colony 
it is undoubtedly an advantage not to have too many larvee, which 
would increase the danger of starvation for the whole lot.¢ The loss 
or disuse of wings by the sexual females of parasitic wasps, drivers, 
and Ponerid, on the other hand, is a sequel of the abandonment by 
«4 Cook, O. F., 1902, The Harwig’s Forceps and the Phylogeny of Insects; Proc. 
Entom. Soc. Wash., 5: S4. 
b Winglessness of one of the sexes also occurs in several anomalous ants which 
live as parasites in the nests of other species and establish no independent colo- 
nies of their own. In the genus Jomognathus the male is winged, but the 
female is wingless and workerlike. Insects from the same nest have been found 
not to pair. In the genera Anergates, Formicorenus, Symmyemica, and Cardio- 
condyla the conditions are reversed, the males being wingless and similar to the 
workers, while the females have normal wings. 
eThe storing of honey by the bees had for its primary purposes, we may 
believe, the avoidance of temporary stringency of food during the period of 
brood rearing, not the laying up of supplies to enable the adult members of the 
colony to pass the winter. The storing habit enables the bees to occupy tem- 
perate regions, but tropical bees also accumulate supplies of honey. 
