FORMICARY. 



185 



The second subfamily, Myrmicarice, includes those species 

 in which the two first abdominal segments are contracted and 

 lenticular. In Myrmica the females and workers are armed 

 with spines, and the ocelli are absent in the workers. The 

 species are very small, and mostly bright colored. Myrmica 

 molesta Say is found in houses all over the world. 



Gr. Lincecum describes the habits of the Agricultural Ant of 

 Texas, Myrmica molefaciens. It lives in populous communi- 

 ties. "They build paved cities, construct roads, and sustain 

 a large military force." In a year and a half from the time 

 the colony begins, the ants previously living concealed beneath 

 the surface, appear above and "clear away the grass, herbage, 

 and other litter, to the distance of three or four feet around the 

 entrance to their city, and construct a pavement, .... con- 

 sisting of a pretty hard crust about half an inch thick," formed 

 of coarse sand and grit. These pavements would be inun- 

 dated in the rainy season, hence, " at least six months pre- 

 vious to the coming of the rain," they begin to build mounds 

 rising a foot or more from the centre of the pavement. Within 

 these mounds are neatly constructed cells into which the 

 "eggs, young ones, and their stores of grain, are carried in 

 time of rainy seasons." No green herb is allowed to grow on 

 the pavement except a grain-bearing grass, Aristida stricta. 

 This grain, when ripe, is harvested, and the chaff removed, 

 while the clean grain is carefully stored away in dry cells. 

 Lincecum avers that the ants even sow this grain. They also 

 store up the "grain from several other species of grass, as 

 well as seeds from many kinds of herbaceous plants." 



Pheidole is distinguished by having workers with enormous 

 heads. P. notabilis Smith, from the Island of Bachian, Indian 

 Archipelago, is noted for the enormously enlarged, cubical 

 head of the worker major, which is at least six times the size 

 of the abdomen, while in the worker minor, the head is of 

 the ordinary size. An Indian species, P. providens Westwood, 

 according to Col. Sykes, "collects so large a store of grass 

 seeds as to last from January and February, the time of 

 their ripening, till October." 



The genus Atta is also well-armed, while the workers have 

 a very large, deeply incised and heart-shaped head, without 



