INSECTS IN RELATION TO PLANTS 



275 



ctirrence when they bear no relation to the needs of ants. 

 These interrelations of ants and plants are too often misinter- 

 preted in popular and uncritical accounts of the subject. 



The interesting habits of the leaf-cutting ants in relation to 

 the plants that they attack are described in a subsequent chap- 

 ter, where will be found also an account of the harvesting ants. 



FIG. 268. 



Hydnopliytum montanum. Section of pseudo-bulb, to show chambers inhabited by ants. 

 One fourth natural size. After FOREL. 



The epiphytic plants Myrmecodia and Hydnophytum, of 

 Java, form spongy bulb-like masses, the chambers of which 

 are usually tenanted by ants, which rush forth when disturbed. 

 These lumps (Fig. 268) are primarily water- reservoirs, but 

 the ants utilize them by boring into them and from one cham- 

 ber into another. In plants of the genus Humboldtia the ants 

 can enter the hollow internodes through openings that already 

 exist. 



