No. 414.] NESTS OF AMERICAN ANTS. 447 
their chamber and its entrances, we are justified in concluding 
that these little guest ants must be in the habit of constructing 
similar lodgings for themselves in the midst of the natural nests 
of the Myrmica. In their natural environment the Leptothorax 
would not be cramped for space as they were in the artificial 
nest, and they would probably dig their cell where they would 
not be so frequently disturbed by their inquisitive hosts. 
While making the observations above recorded I was much 
impressed with the poverty-stricken appearance of the Myrmica 
colony. Although it originally contained no less then six fertile 
queens, the number of workers, larvz, pupa, and eggs was dis- 
proportionately small. Furthermore, many of the workers were 
of rather diminutive size, and a few of them had crippled 
abdomens. I began to suspect that the Leptothorax might 
be appropriating the liquid food regurgitated by the Myrmica 
workers on the mouths of their larvae. With this in mind I 
closely watched the larve and the inquiline ants. Once I saw 
a Leptothorax lick the mouths of two young larva that were 
lying side by side and on another occasion a Leptothorax 
licked the body of one of the larvæ. But finally, on September 3, 
I made an observation which convinced me that the regur- 
gitated food is not stolen from the mouths of the Myrmica 
larvae. On the morning of that day four Myrmica workers 
were found tugging at the head of a large larva. Under 
the lens I could see that a mass of regurgitated syrup had 
hardened over the face of the larva like a mask, and that the 
four workers were trying to remove it. At last one of them 
succeeded in pulling it off, and while she was moving away 
with it the mass stuck to the roof-pane for a moment, and I 
could see that it was quite hard and glutinous and must have 
remained on the face of the larva for some time. As the 
Leptothorax were continually roving about the galleries in 
search of food, they could hardly have failed to appropriate so 
rich a morsel if they were in the habit of obtaining their food in 
this manner. If any conclusion can be drawn from the single 
nest to which my observations have been confined, it would seem 
to be that the poverty-stricken condition of the Myrmicas, not- 
withstanding the number of fertile queens, must be brought 
