PROVISIONS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 93 



such stores. Among the Myrmecocysius there are 

 workers of two sorts; the first kind resemble other 

 ants with some differences of detail, and build and 

 hollow the earth nest which shelters the com- 

 munity. The second kind is quite different ; the 

 abdomen in these workers is enormously distended 

 so as to constitute a voluminous sphere, which may 

 become four or five times larger than the thorax and 

 head together. (Fig. 12.) On this distended re- 

 ceptacle appear several darker plates ; these are the 

 remains of the chitinous parts of the primitive wings. 

 In the fine season these ants go out in a band and 

 collect a sweet liquor 

 which forms pearly 

 drops on certain gal 

 of oak leaves. Thes 

 drops, elaborated int 

 honey, gradually fill th 

 crop, distending it and 

 pushing back neigh- """"^Fig. 



bouring organs until it 



receives its globular form. When they have arrived 

 at this obese condition, the heavy honey ants no longer 

 leave the nest. They remain without movement, hang- 

 ing by their legs to the roof or lying against the walls 

 of a room. The workers who have remained slender 

 come and go, attending to their usual occupations, and 

 pass near the others without paying attention to them 

 or going out of the way to lend assistance to the'ir 

 impotent sisters when one of them has rolled over on 

 the ground and can no longer arise unaided. (Fig. 

 13.) They only cease to be indifferent when im- 

 pelled by the selfish sentiment of hunger, and then it 

 is to ask and not to give assistance. The fat ants in 



