g 0 A Living Honeycomb. [February, 
The honey-gatherer is difficult to observe. It is a nofturnal 
ant, keeping out of sight of the sun during the day, and 
only venturing forth at nightfall in search of food. Dr. 
M'Cook observed them, in the summer twilight, marching 
outward from the nest in long columns, and pursuing night 
after night the same paths. He watched them for a consi- 
derable time before he succeeded in finding the goal ot these 
nightly expeditions. At length, discovering some ants on 
the twigs of a species of scrub oak, which grew abundantly 
at the foot of the ridge, he observed that they showed a 
marked preference for certain small oak-galls which were 
ranged along the sides of the twigs. # 
The next thing to be done was to examine these galls. 
We are accustomed to associate galls with the idea of bit- 
terness only, yet they proved to be the true honey- 
yielders. On the round green masses minute drops ot a 
sweet juice were found : this the ants eagerly licked up, 
passing from gall to gall until fully laden, or returning to 
the original gall at a later hour when fresh sweetness had 
exuded from it. . , 
^The gall-nut, it is well known, is an excrescence upon the 
leaves of a species of oak ; it is produced by the punrture 
of a small hymenopterous insert for the purpose of depo- 
siting its eggs. A minute grub lies in the centre of the 
soft mass which composes the gall. Whether the sweet 
iuice came from this grub, or from the sap of the tree, was 
not readily to be discovered, though it was most likely an 
exudation of the sap. . , . 
All night the busy gatherers of sweets were occupied in 
collecting honey from the galls. Towards morning they 
were seen in great numbers returning to the nest, their 
bodies swollen with the night’s harvest of honey, which as 
we have said, is given to the living honeycombs within, 
being forced from the bodies of the workers and into the 
mouths of the honey-bearers, until, by the time the season 
is over, they present a remarkable distension. 
This is about all that is known at present concerning the 
habits of these strange ants. They very likely have other 
sources of honey at other seasons ; but the most inte- 
resting fart is the surprising mode of storage of this 
sweet food. 
In New Mexico the inhabitants put these ants to a very 
peculiar use, supplementing their dinners with a plateful of 
honey ants for dessert. The overladen inserts wait in en- 
forced patience while the preceding courses of the dinner 
