21 
mained behind, but were caught and carried by their sisters into the 
new burrow. This simple expedient avoids many difficulties and 
complications. The queen need not be possessed of any instinct of 
leading or accompanying the swarm, as among the bees, and there is 
no danger of her becoming lost as a result of her comparatively de- 
ficient instincts. 
The large straight-edged mandibles of the kelep are well adapted 
for holding or carrying objects of considerable size. Ants with 
smaller jaws could not catch and sting boll weevils, because they could 
not hold them in the right position. Numerous ants may be said to 
attack boll weevils, but are able only to seize them by the legs or 
snouts and drag them about for a time. As soon as released the 
weevil escapes by its well-learned trick of feigning death. The 
kelep can pick the weevil up bodily, and in normal positions on the 
stems of cotton plants can usually sting it while the weevil is still 
“playing possum,” before it begins to struggle. It is accordingly 
not without interest that the large mandibles and long legs which 
qualify the kelep as a weevil destroyer have other important func- 
tions in the social economy of the species. 
It may be mentioned also, as showing the special efficiency of the 
keleps in moving their domicile, that they seldom carry one egg alone, 
but will often go to considerable pains to pick up two or three at a 
time. Sometimes the eggs adhere in considerable numbers, though 
not as in Odontomachus, where they are cylindrical and are made up 
into compact bundles.. Eggs, pupx, and other objects are frequently 
pushed between the mandibles by the end of the abdomen, brought 
up from below as in stinging the boll weevil. Two cocoons are some- 
times packed up in this way, so that they can be carried together. It 
is also by virtue of this same flexibility of the abdomen that the. 
workers are able to assist themselves with their mandibles in the lay- 
ing of the undersized eggs which they occasionally produce. 
DIVISION OF A COLONY. 
A colony with two queens spontaneously divided into two by the 
departure of some of the workers and one of the queens. ‘This inci- 
dent was observed in Victoria, Tex., by Mr. Frederick L. Lewton, the 
essential facts being stated as follows: 
On July 22 the ants in colony No. 26 exhibited signs of restlessness, and as 
several had been found dead a new nest was prepared in a larger jar. The 
two jars were connected by means of a cotton-leaf bridge. The dead ants were 
immediately carried over to the new jar and also the hard remains of several 
boll weevils. A considerable amount of earth was also carried from the old 
nest to the new, but few ants remained in the new jar until its lower half 
was protected from the light. The protection was removed from the old jar, 
which was also allowed to become dry, in order to hurry the keleps in removing 
the colony. 
