386 
HORN EXPEDITION—HONEY ANTS. 
Tliough belonging to a different genus from ours their liabits are not unlike, 
and as they are confined to a similar dry and drought-stricken country, probably 
the same surroundings have led to like habits. Mr. M‘Cook says :—“ Their nests ai’e 
found in ridgy country with small truncated cones protecting the entrances, which 
fead into a vertical shaft from three to six inches in depth leading into galleries 
and chand3ers, cutting through gravel and .sandstone to nearly eight feet in 
distance, and from two to four feet beneath the surface. The honey-bag ants were 
lound hanging in clusters to the roof of the chambers by the feet, their large 
gloliular bodies looking like bunches of grapes, and each nest contained from eight 
to ten chambers, each containing about thirty honey ants, which as soon as the 
nest was broken into were dragged below by the workers. They are nocturnal in 
their habits, the workers obtaining their supplies of honey from a sweet exudation 
from the galls of a kind of cynips which grew plentifully upon the oaks in tliat 
district.” 
The second species of honey ant belongs to the genus Cremaiogasfer, the 
members of which construct their nests on the branches of trees, not unlike wasp 
nests, but the interior consists of many irregular galleries and chambers. Their 
abdomen is generally heart-shaped, and the peduncle by which it is attached to 
the thorax, being inserted at the top of the basal segment instead of beneath, 
gives them a very comical appearance when running about, as they carry their 
abdomen curved over the thorax. 
Crematogaste)’ inflatus, Smith,* is found at Singapore and Sarawak, but 
instead of having the abdomen formed into a honey-bag, Smith says ;—“It has a 
swollen bladder-like formation on the metathorax furnished with a small circular 
orifice at the posterior lateral angles, from which the saccharine fluid doubtless 
exudes; portions of crystallised particles are visible within the orifices, and 
frequently scattered all over the surface of the inflation, and we may thex’efore 
reasonably conclude that this insect elaborates a suitable and necessary aliment 
for the nourishment of the young brood.” 
Our Australian honey ants belong to the genus Caniponotus, members of 
which are found in all parts of the world, and are popularly known as “sugar 
ants” from their fondness for all kinds of sweets. Over thirty species are 
described from Australia, which generally construct their nests under stones or 
logs, and are nocturnal in their habits. Camponohcs inflatus was described by 
Sir John Lubbockf from specimens received from Adelaide. 
B.M. Cat. H.vin., jit. vi., IS.'iS, p. 136, pi. ix., fig. 1. 
f Jour. Linn. Soc, Zool., xv., 1880, p. 167. 
