444 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



the jDrimitivo one, or very nearly so ; and lie thinks tliat the altf r- 

 nation of generation is dne to the steady though gradual alteration 

 in climate, while adaptations to new conditions of life have more or 

 less altered the whole organization of each species. 



Shining Slave-makers (Polyergus lucidns).* — The Rev. H. 

 M'Cook records the discovery at the foot of the Alleghany Mountains, 

 near Altoona, of a nest of Polyergus lucidiis, the American represen- 

 tative of the Legionary Ant of Huber (P. rufescens), an ant associated 

 with that author's discovery of ant-nests, in which certain ants have 

 associated with them, in a sort of slavery, ants of another species. 



The nest had four gates sepai-ated a few inches from each other ; the 

 chambers were placed one above tbe other, united by tubular galleries. 

 In an inner ovoid chamber numbers of the ants, male and female, 

 appeared ; mingled with these in large numbers were workers in three 

 forms— major, minor, and dvfSivi oi Formica Schmiffussi. A portion of 

 the excavated nest was broken into, and on the next day but one was 

 visited. None of the shining ants were at work, but the " slaves " 

 were very busy cleaning out tlie galleries ; a portion of the slaves 

 were engaged in an extensive migration ; a few were carrying their 

 fellows, but for the most part the deportation was confined to the 

 males and females of the shining ants. It was wonderful to see the 

 large virgin-queens carried up the perpendicular face of the cutting 

 for eighteen or twenty inches, and then for the distance of six feet over 

 the ground and tlirough the grass, and this in a few seconds over a 

 minute. The shining ants are able to take a most wonderful grip. 

 One of them had fallen under the disjileasure of another, who held 

 her firmly grasped by the middle thorax. Anxious to preserve the 

 colony from unnecessary loss, Mr. M'Cook lifted the two out on the 

 point of a quill toothpick, laid them on his hand, and thrust the fine 

 point of the quill between the jaws of the aggressor, and so teased her 

 that she released her fellow. The rescued ant instantly clasped the 

 palm of his hand, threw her abdomen under her, and then, with back 

 curved like that of an angry cat, sawed and tugged away at the skin 

 until an abrasion was made. The other ant still clung fast by her 

 mandibles only to the toothpick's point, her body stretched out into 

 space, her limbs stretched outwards, except one liind leg, which was 

 a little bent upward, and thus without any perceptible support except 

 that which her jaws gave her upon the quill-point, she hung out- 

 stretched for several minutes. About a month after its discovery the 

 nest was again visited ; it was abundantly peopled ; the winged forms 

 of the shining ant were however gone. 



Having succeeded in colonizing these ants, Mr. M'Cook was able 

 to confirm in many particulars the statements of Huber, Forel, and 

 others, but he never happened to see the slaves feeding their masters. 

 He noticed that they seemed to like to move towards both warmth 

 and ligbt, but he does not seem to have settled the question whether 

 they would not prefer the warmth without the light. Tliey would 



* Proc. Acarl. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1880, pp. 376-84 (1 pi.). St e 'Nahue,' xxiii. 

 (18§1) p. 54.S. 



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