140 



CRABS AND INSECTS. 



have regular farms on which they seem to cultivate the 

 plant Aristida stricta. 



Honey-Ants. In the Myrmecocystus melliger of Tex- 

 as, certain individuals are selected as storehouses by the 

 rest, filled with honey (Fig. 175), and suspended in special 

 apartments as living bottles. They are cared for and 

 tended by the others, and made to give up their honey 

 when it is needed. 



VALUE. The honey-ants are eaten as a delicacy in Mexico. For- 

 mic acid is obtained from the bodies of others. All are scavengers. 



FIG. 176. Mud-dauber wasp 

 building nest. 



Mud-Wasps. 



These large wasps ( Fig. 

 I 77>^) paralyze insects 

 with their sting, storing 

 them up in a benumbed 

 condition in the egg- 

 cells as food for the 

 future young (Fig. 177), 

 The nests are either 



FIG. 177. Showing a wasp's nest of four 

 cells cut open, a, representing a cell 

 with the egg at the bottom, and the re- 

 maining space filled with spiders ; 6, 

 the larva full-grown, after having con- 

 sumed all the spiders ; c, the pupa ; 

 and d, the imago, or perfect mud- wasp, 

 ready to come out. 



FiG. 178. Mud-cells of a South American 

 \vasp attached to a branch. 



