52 ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



after absence on a foraging expedition, give up their 

 collected supplies to the distending individuals, who 

 more or less entirely remain at home. They do this 

 by means of regurgitation, and by injecting it into 

 the mouth of their wonderful sister formicarians. 

 Within the latter the honey is held in reserve in 

 case of emergencies, such as the seasons when the 

 gleanings are less abundant or when the resources 

 of nature wholly fail. Notwithstanding these dis- 

 asters the family must be fed ; and be it remembered 

 that many of its members the queen, the virgin 

 females, the males, and the occupants of the teeming 

 nurseries all look to the workers to supply them 

 with food. Just as under similar circumstances the 

 bee goes to the honeycomb, breaks open a waxen 

 cell and abstracts the contained sweets, so the worker 

 ants go to their companion honeypots when they 

 are hungry or if desirous of administering nourish- 

 ment to others. The bearer from its store delivers 

 up the honey required, the pensioners lapping it from 

 off the giver's lips as it gathers there, being forced up 

 in little drops or globules by the muscles of the 

 abdomen. (See Fig. 3.) 



These remarkable ants live in dwellings under- 

 ground, and the honey-bearers may be seen in 

 chambers set apart, in little rows, clinging by their 

 feet to the ceiling, their sphere-like abdomens hanging 

 downwards. (See Fig. 4.) Though it is a mistake to 

 deny these unhappy gorged creatures the power to 

 move, and to abandon a perch after it is adopted, there 

 can be no doubt that movement and change of posture 

 are less and less resorted to as expansion increases, 



