INSECTS AND SPIDERS 



527 



dozen specimens of these little nests in the immense col- 

 lections of insects in the United States National Museum, 

 at Washington. Last July (1920), the wife of the writer 

 discovered the one heie figured on Eighteenth Street, in 

 Washington ; it was attached to the under side of a leaf 

 of an elm tree, near the corner of Park Road. Unfor- 

 tunately, the wasp that built it was not in evidence. At this 

 writing the specimen is in the insect collection of the 

 National Museum. One of these solitary wasps is shown 

 on back view in the accompanying cut, it having been 

 drawn by the writer in that some idea might be gained 

 of what curious little f(llows thev arc. It is the Euincnes 



jar is sealed up. Quietly these little black and yellow 

 \\ asps do their work ; while not one farmer or agricul- 

 turist in an hundred are even aware of their existence. 



Of all the known insects in the world, and there are 

 untold thousands of them, there is no assemblage more 

 remarkable, or filled with extraordinary interest, than is 

 the natural history of ants. 



There is a perfect host of species of ants, while, as a 

 rule, they have for the most part been grouped in the 

 family F ormicidae , representatives of which are found in 

 a great many parts of the world, aside from the polar and 

 suhpo'ar recjions. 



FIG. 7. IMMENSE NEST OF THE BLACK WOOD ANT 



Probably it takes the ants a long time to build this mound, and several generations of them take part in it. Were we 

 to cut a mound like this one in half, vertically, in such a manner as to show its internal construction it would be seen that 

 the part above the surface of the ground contains some ten or more tunnels leading down into the ground below, and these 

 terminate in distinct roundish cavities, some seven or eight in number, all interconnecting with each other. They are 

 subterranean storehouses in which the ants store their food for winter use- 



fraternus of science. ' The light markings are yellow, 

 and the rest of the head and body black. Some of the 

 species burrow into the pith of plant-stems, lining the 

 excavation with clay. From an economic standpoint, this 

 extensive family is an important one, as they kill and 

 devour every year thousands upon thousands of the 

 larvae of moths, butterflies, and beetles that feed upon the 

 vegetable products of the farm and fruit-orchards. When 

 a potter wasp meets with a caterpillar to its liking, it 

 stings it, which completely paralyzes the victim. It then 

 packs it away in its little pot, where it will constitute 

 food for its own larvae, which will hatch out before the 



We have many species of them, as well as their near 

 relatives, in this country, and our economic and general 

 entomologists have given them a very large share of 

 attention. Whole bulletins and many elaborate works 

 have been published on the biology and the ecology of 

 ants, and yet we have hardly touched upon what still 

 remains to be known about them. 



"Certain ants enslave other species," says Packard, 

 "have herds of cattle, the aphides ; build complicated 

 nests, or formicaries, tunnel broad rivers, lay up seeds 

 for use in the winter time, are patterns of industry, and 

 exhibit a readiness in overcoming extraordinary emer- 



