HONEY-MAKING ANTS. Ill" 



insects collect from the ground beneath, and work into 

 the form of thin scales. These are then built together in 

 an imbricated manner, like tiles or slates upon the roof of a 

 house, the upper or outer scale, however, being one un- 

 broken sheet, which covers the whole nest like a skull-cap. 

 Below this the scales are placed one upon another in a 

 wavy or scalloped manner, so that numerous little arched 

 entrances are left, and yet, owing to the imbricated 

 manner in which the scales are arranged, the interior of 

 the nest is perfectly protected from rain. This interior 

 consists of a number of irregular cells, the walls of which 

 are formed by the same process as the exterior. 



In New South Wales there is another species of ant 

 which also frequents trees, but builds within the stem and 

 branches. In the report of Captain Cook's expedition its 

 habits are thus described : — ' Their habitations are the 

 insides of the branches of a tree, which they contrive to 

 excavate, by working out the pith almost to the extremity 

 <rf the slenderest twig ; the tree at the same time flourish- 

 ing as if it had no such inmate.' On breaking one of the 

 branches the ants swarm out in legions. Some of our 

 native species also have the habit of excavating the in- 

 terior of trees, though not on so extensive a scale. 



Honey-making Ant (Myrmecocystus mexicanus). — 

 This ant is found in Texas and New Mexico. Capt. W. 

 B. Fleeson has observed its habits, and his observations 

 have been communicated to the Californian Academy of 

 Sciences, and also, by Mr. Henry Edwards, to ]\ir. Darwin. 

 The following are the chief points of interest in Capt. 

 Fleeson's results : — 



The coinmunity appears to consist of three distinct kinds of 

 ants, probably of two separate genera, whose offices in the 

 general order of the nest would seem to he entirely apart from 

 each other, and who perform the labour allotted to them with- 

 out the least encroachment upon the duties of their fellows. 

 These three kinds are — 



I. Yellow workers ; nurses and feeders of II. 



II. Yellow honey-makers; sole function to secrete a kind of 



honey in their large globose abdomens, on which the 

 other ants are supposed to feed. They never quit 

 the nest, and are fed and tended by I. 



