CHAPTER VII 

 HONEY ANTS OF THE GARDEN-OF-THE-GODS 



ANTS and bees are inveterate seekers of sweets. 

 J\. Both have found a way to lay by their gatherings 

 against a time of need. The measureless diversity in 

 unity that marks the course of nature appears in that 

 these two kindred creatures have reached the same end 

 by ways most diverse. The bee keeps her treasure in 

 wrought honeycombs; the ant resorts to living struct- 

 ure. She has not only acquired the habit of aphis- 

 culture, but in a few species, at least, utilizes certain of 

 her fellows as living honey-jars. The story of this 

 habit as seen in the honey ants of the Garden-of-the- 

 gods {Myrmecocystus hortus-deorum) is now to be told. 



In A.D. 1832, Dr. Pablo de Llave made known the ex- 

 istence of Mexican ants some of whom have spherical 

 abdomens filled with honey. His information and spec- 

 imens came from a resident of Dolores, a village near 

 Mexico City, who said that these honey-charged forms 

 were there held to be great delicacies, being freely eaten 

 and served at marriage and other social feasts. 



This account greatly interested naturalists; but little 

 more was known of the insect until 1879, when the 

 author of tliis book left Philadelphia for New Mexico, 

 where the ants were reported to abound, hoping to re- 

 move this long reproach from American entomology. 



96 



