The Honey Ants of Point Loma 
BY PERCY LEONARD 
Ever since Llave first described a Mexican honey ant in 1832, 
these insects have been more or less before the public notice, and yet 
there are many obscure points to be cleared up in respect to their habits. 
The following notes are a contribution to the subject, and are 
based upon nearly a year’s observations of these ants, both in the wild 
state and in captivity. 
In opening up a nest of honey ants, we are lable to meet with 
six distinet phases. Firstly, and most numerous are the workers, the 
undeveloped females which occur in three sizes, the majors, the minors, 
and the minims; and 
the so-called 
““queens’’, who exer- 
cise no regal power, 
ce ee but are simply the 
ege producers and 
mothers of the com- 
¥ munity. They have 
; deprived themselves 
of their wings and 
inhabit the darkest 
recesses of the nest. 
Fig. 1. Winged female of Myrmecocystus mexicanus Next eome the 
mojave. Major, minor and minim workers. Two A abe es 
replete majors and a nodule brought Mya ie fess staal f ema ] ise 
out of the nest. 
adorned with gauzy 
wings of great beauty, and lastly, the almost brainless males, likewise 
provided with wings. (Fig. 1.) 
Besides these we find the repletes, which are not, however, a dis- 
tinct phase, but are simply workers (usually majors) whose crops 
are so distended with honey as to justify their generic name Myrme- 
coeystus (1. e., ant bladders). These ants have evolved their distinc- 
tive habit with reference to climatic conditions. In the Californian 
springtime the hills are covered with flowers and flowering shrubs. 
The juicy shoots of many plants are also infested with aphides, which 
excrete the ‘Shoney dew’’. These insects use only a part of the sweet 
sap sucked from the growing shoots, the surplus being excreted, and 
