210 
TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSEC 7 S. 
becomes so distended that it resembles a transparent bubble. 
When the ants are thus blown out they cannot walk, but remain 
fixed or suspended to the floors of the galleries of their nests. 
The women and children of the country dig them up and enjoy 
their honey, and it is by no means unusual for these insects 
to be served at table, the head and the thorax being removed, 
so that the sweet portions resemble little isolated bladders on 
a plate. One would almost fancy that this syrupy secretion 
must collect for some purpose, and probably these very corpulent 
individuals are the nurses of the establishment. 
Many of the ants belonging to tropical countries are classified 
under the group of the Ponerites , and one of them, Typhlopona 
Oramensis , which is found in Algiers, forms small colonies ; it is 
of a pale red colour, and lives under stones. The males and 
females are unknown, but the workers all appear to be blind, they 
never come to the light, and they labour constantly in their dark 
galleries. How they obtain their food, and of what it may 
consist, are matters for future observation. 
The Myrmicites are found in Europe and in America, and the 
ants of this division are usually very small in temperate climates, 
but in the inter-tropical regions of America many of the species 
attain a very considerable bulk, and are also very abundant. 
There are two forms of workers in the nests of the different 
kinds of Myrmicites ; in one the insects have a small head, and 
in the other a very large one. This difference in the size of the 
head has been frequently recognised amongst the workers of 
the nests in South America, and it appears to be the case also 
with a European ant. The ants with large heads are called 
Soldier Ants, in consequence of the expressed opinion of travellers, 
who assert that they are particularly devoted to the defence 
of the nest. The supposition that these robust and well-armed 
individuals might be males has not yet been justified by anato- 
mical investigations. M. Lespes has noticed in the European 
species that both kinds of these neuter workers do the same sort 
of work in the interior of the nest. A late discovery made by 
Professor Schenck has shown that there is a kind of Myrmica 
whose mandibles are made like those of the Polyergi, and are 
therefore useless as working instruments. M. Mayr has separated 
