INSECT HERDS AND HERDERS 



sition or resources; but it is allowed to jjass on. Its 

 abdomen is now at normal size, but the bodies of many 

 of its fellows are romided out from fulness, and, one 

 would think, must feel uncomfortable. The ants, how- 

 ever, are fast relieving them, and their own abdomens 

 are undergoing a noticeable change. They swell and 

 elongate mi til the folded membranous bands which unite 

 the several segments thereof are pushed out into straight, 

 wliite, transparent ribbons by the distension of the crops 

 into which the honey dew first goes. At length the abdo- 

 mens are so full that they become semi-translucent, and 

 the burdened honey-gatherers turn towards home. 



These "repletes," as they have been called, compose 

 the descending column upon the tree-trunk, and their 

 swollen abdomens with their whitish bands show in 

 sharp contrast with the small, roundish, black abdomens 

 of the ascending ants. At the foot of the tree a most 

 interesting scene awaits the observer, to which the 

 writer was thus led : Among the workers thronging the 

 avenues radiating from the hills to various trees, the 

 number of home-bound repletes was seen to be out of 

 all proportion to those descending the trees from the 

 feeding-gromids. Moreover, many workers were return- 

 ing home without swollen abdomens. If they had not 

 been foraging, what then? Or had they simply been 

 more abstemious than their fellows? Led by these 

 reflections to follow the repletes down the tree-paths 

 with greater care, some of them were seen to disappear 

 at the roots. This led to a discovery which the reader 

 is now prepared to share. 



Let us clear away these dead leaves as noiselessly as 

 may be. Turn back gently the sod at the angle of this 

 bulging root. You have exposed a cavity whose occu- 



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