HONEY ANTS 



During a brief visit to the Garden-of-the-gods iii Colo- 

 rado, the honey ants were found nested upon the ridges. 

 The trip to New Mexico was deferred; camp was made 

 within the Garden, and study of architecture and habits 

 was begun. 



The Mexican species {Myrmecocystus melliger) had 

 been reported as making no outer nest. The Colorado 

 species, or variety, heaps around its one central gate a 

 low moundlet of pebbles and sand, the dumpings from 

 the galleries, halls, and rooms dug in the rock beneath. 



A DISH OF HONEY ANTS AS SERVED AT MEXICAN WEDDING BANQUETS 



These moundlets are not huge cones outfitted for nesting 

 uses, but are the natural outtake of the mining gangs 

 within. 



In form they are like a Turk's-head pound-cake, and 

 are not above four inches in height, with a base girth 

 of thirty-two inches. They have one main gate, a 

 straight, tubular opening less than an inch wide, slightly 

 fimnel-shaped at the top. This cuts through the mound 

 perpendicularly and is deflected at an angle more or 

 less abrupt. Thence it leads into a series of branching 

 galleries and rooms which in populous formicaries occur 

 in stories. These inner chambers are vaulted spaces of 

 irregular shape ; are five to six inches long, three or four 

 wide, rising from a half -inch to an inch and a half at the 

 centre. 



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