THE MYRMECOCYSTUS. 2€9 
through the breach. Three or four minutes afterwards the red 
ants came out again in great haste, each one holding between its 
mandibles a larva or a nymph. They took the same route home- 
wards, but not in the same military array. This is a clear case 
of slave making; and after a time the red ants live in peace 
with and enjoy the results of the labours of their black workers. 
Under these circumstances the red ant’s nest is said to consist 
of amazons, or legionaries, and workers. It is a wonderful instinct 
that causes the red Polyergz—which cannot work the soil and 
construct underground edifices, and which cannot nourish their 
own larva—to select workers from the nests of other species to 
do all this. They never seek adult workers, for they would never 
Myrmecocystus Mexicanus. 
The ants are represented as seen from above and sideways, natural size and magnified. 
stop in a strange home, so they look out for nymphs and larve, 
which never attempt to depart from the nest when they have 
completed their metamorphosis, but set to work to build cells 
as well as to feed the larve of their captors. A very curious 
ant is found in Mexico, and was described nearly thirty years 
since by a Belgian naturalist, M. Wesmaél. The abdomen of 
this ant (Zyrmecocystus Mexicanus) can be distended to a pro- 
digious extent with a sort of honey. They are common near 
the town of Dolores, and are known there under the name of 
Bustleras, and they live in underground nests, which are not 
distinguishable from without. These insects do not present any 
unusual distension of the body in early life, but after a while 
it is observed in a certain number of individuals. When the 
accumulation of syrup is very great in the intestines, the body 
O 
