336 ENTOMOLOGY 



permanent abode, but now and then appropriate some conveni- 

 ent hole for the purpose of raising a new brood of marauders. 



Slave-making Ants. It is a fact that some ants make 

 slaves of other species. Formica sanguined, for example, will 

 attack a colony of Formica fusca, kill its active members in 

 spite of their determined resistance, kidnap the larvae and pupae 

 and carry them home, where the captives receive every care, 

 and at length, as imagines, serve their masters as faithfully as 

 they would serve their own species. In the Alleghanies, ac- 

 cording to McCook, colonies of F. fusca occur where there are 

 no " red ants " (F. sanguinea), but are hard to find where the 

 enslaving species occurs. 



Although F. sangpnea can exist very well without slaves, 

 Polyergus rufescens, of Europe, is notoriously dependent upon 

 their services, it being doubtful whether it is capable of feed- 

 ing itself. This species is powerful as a warrior, but its man- 

 dibles are of little use, except to pierce the head of an adver- 

 sary. Strongylonotus is still more helpless, while Anergates 

 (also of Europe) is said to depend absolutely upon its slaves. 



Polyergus lucidus occurs in the Alleghanies, where the col- 

 onies of this species, according to McCook, contain large num- 

 bers of the workers of Formica schaufussi. The masters are 

 good fighters but do no other work, and have not been seen to 

 feed themselves, though they may often be seen feeding from 

 the mouths of their slaves. 



Honey Ants. Among ants in general, the workers that 

 stay in the nest receive food from the mouths of the foragers 

 a custom which has led to the extraordinary conditions 

 found in the " honey ants," in. which certain of the workers 

 sacrifice their own activity in order to act as living reservoirs 

 of food for the benefit of the other members of the colony. 

 This remarkable habit has arisen independently, in different 

 genera of ants, in North America, Australia and South Africa, 

 as Lubbock observes. 



The honey ant whose habits are best known, through the 

 studies of McCook and others, is Myrmecocystus melliger, of 



