22 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 
THE HONEY ANTS. 
By A. O. GARRETT. 
(Abstract). 
A review is given of a paper by Professor William 
Morton Wheeler entitled “Honey Ants, with a Revision 
of the American Myrmecocysti.” 
There are two species of honey ants in North America, 
Myrmecocystus melliger (more abundant at lower altitudes 
of 300-1500 meters) and M. mexicanus (at higher altitudes 
of 2000-2500 meters). McCook discovered M. horti-deorum 
(a variety of M. mexicanus) in the Garden of the Gods 
near Manitou, Colorado, in 1882. This is nocturnal in 
its habits, while M. melliger is diurnal. The colony of 
M. horti-deorum consists of yellow workers, which are 
the nurses and feeders; of other yellow workers, which 
are the honey makers; and of black workers, which are the 
guards and purveyors. 
The reasons for giving this review are stated as 
follows: 
One day last autumn, Mr. Guy Hart, a senior in the 
Salt Lake High School, brought to me a box containing 
several repletes of honey ants. He had dug them up 
near Garfield. The abdominal walls of some had been 
broken, and the honey, a thick, viscous, rather dark-brown 
substance, had spread over the bottom of the box. The 
honey-chamber is about the size of a small currant. The 
measurement of that of one ant is 11 x 7.5 mm. I sent 
specimens to Professor Wheeler, who pronounced them 
as undoubtedly M. mexicanus, belonging to a variety very 
closely allied to horti-deorum. They are, however, apparent- 
ly smaller than the repletes of that variety, the measure- 
ments of which he gives as 10-13 mm. in length. 
Whether this is a new variety or not cannot be deter- 
mined until a complete set of workers shall have been 
collected. However, the find is the first recorded for 
Utah, and Garfield is the farthest north and farthest west 
of any locality for any species or variety of the honey 
