486 SYNOPTIC COLLECTION. 



with many males takes the nuptial flight, after which egg- 

 laying begins and continues for several seasons, the queen 

 often living for four or five years. 



Formicidae. Specialization has gone on in ants till 

 there are no solitary forms, all the species living together 

 in colonies. There are, however, simple colonies, like 

 those we have already found in wasps and bees. It has 

 been observed and the observation proven by experiment 

 that a colony of Camponotus ligniperdus is started by a 

 single female who carries on the industrial work of the 

 nest until her worker-children are old enough to assume 

 the burden. 



In the ant the body is less consolidated than in the 

 bee, but Jn this case this lack of concentration is evidently 

 a specialized condition and must not be confused with 

 the unconsolidated state of primitive forms. That this 

 laxity is an evidence of specialization is shown by the 

 fact that there is less concentration in the specialized 

 wingless workers than in the winged males and females. 

 The habits of these insects are such that great mobility 

 of body is necessary and therefore lack of concentration 

 has become a secondary and adaptive character. The 

 peculiar junction of the thorax and abdomen has prob- 

 ably been produced by the habit of stinging. The pe- 

 duncle is formed of either the second abdominal segment 

 or the second and third segments (counting the pro- 

 podeum attached to the thorax as the first). These seg- 

 ments are extremely slender and are called nodes ; by 

 means of these the power of stinging is greatly increased. 

 It is noticeable that there is but one of these nodes in 

 most of the stingless species, as for instance in Campo- 

 notus. An extreme modification of the abdomen is seen 

 in Cremastogaster (PL 1244, figs. 1,2) where this part of 

 the body can be thrown forward over the thorax and 

 head. 



Specialization among the ants has brought about divi- 

 sion of labor, and correlatively the peculiar structures 



