140 CRABS AND INSECTS. 
have regular farms on which they seem to cultivate the 
plant Aristida stricta. 
Honey-Ants.—In the AZyrmecocystus 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, 
d ¢ é a 
Fic. 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; 4, 
the larva full-grown, after having con- 
sumed all the spiders; c, the pupa; 
Fic. 176.—Mud-dauber wasp 
building nest. and @, the imago, or perfect mud-wasp, 
ready to come out. 
Mud-Wasps.— 
These large wasps (Fig. 
177,@) paralyze insects 
with their sting, storing 
them up in a benumbed 
condition in the egg- 
cells as food for the 
future young (Fig. 177). Fic. 178.—Mud-cells of a South American 
The nests are either wasp attached to a branch, 
