488 



ARTHROPODA. 



less wonderful than those of the bees, but their social organization is fre- 

 quently more complicated. In the colony occur the wingless workers 

 (rudimentary females with wing pads in larval life which are lost in pupa- 



FIG. 521. 



FIG. 522. 



FIG. 5Zl.Myrmecocystus melliger* honey-sac ant. (Orig.) 



FIG. 522. Plant of Hydnophyton- (After Forbes.) Showing the bulb occupied by 

 ants. 



tion), and of these frequently there are different kinds, large-headed 

 soldiers and small-headed workers ; * honey sacs' in Myrmecocystus ; and 

 the sexual animals, queens and drones, which copulate in a marriage 

 flight. The queen after the flight returns to the colony. Frequently 



other insects, like the Aphides, are con- 

 nected with the colony, these being kept 

 for the honey dew they produce. Many 

 ants steal the pupae of others and keep 

 the adults when they emerge as slaves. 

 In Polyergus rufescens this has gone so 

 far that the masters cannot care for 

 themselves and must be fed by the slaves ; 

 otherwise they die. The ants possess 

 extreme interest on account of their care- 

 fully planned wars (Ecitons) ; on account 

 of their relations to plants, some species 

 making nests in the growing plant and 

 protecting it by their bites ; the leaf- 

 cutting ants take leaves from trees and 

 carry them into their underground nests 

 for the cultivation of fungi on which 

 they feed ; the agricultural ants from 

 their plantations and stores of grain, and 

 the honey ants from the fact that certain 

 FIG. 523. Head of Cicada septendedm, workers (fig. 521) act as reservoirs of 



the mouth parts separated (ori 

 >nna; e, compound eye; /, 

 bium ; wd, mandible ; nix, maxilla, enormous Size. 



a, antenna; e, compound eye; S& boney, these ' honey sacs' swelling up to 



