. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. lers studies were confined to the adult colonies of the question as to how these ants came by their fungi in the first place,was subsequently answered by the researches of Sampaio (1894), vonIhering (1898), Goeldi (19050 and b) and Huber (1905, 1907, 1908).Sampaio found fungus gardens in very young formicaries of theBrazilian Atta sexdens, and von Ihering showed that the virginfemale of this species, on leaving the nest for her marriage flight,carries in her infrabuccal pocket a pellet of hyphse taken from thefungus garden of the mat
. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. lers studies were confined to the adult colonies of the question as to how these ants came by their fungi in the first place,was subsequently answered by the researches of Sampaio (1894), vonIhering (1898), Goeldi (19050 and b) and Huber (1905, 1907, 1908).Sampaio found fungus gardens in very young formicaries of theBrazilian Atta sexdens, and von Ihering showed that the virginfemale of this species, on leaving the nest for her marriage flight,carries in her infrabuccal pocket a pellet of hyphse taken from thefungus garden of the maternal formicary. This pellet is the unex-pelled refuse of her last meal. After fecundation she digs a cavity inthe soil, closes its opening to the outside world and sets to work tofound a colony. She spits out the pellet of hyphse and cultivates it,while she is at the same time laying eggs and rearing the larvae. VonIhering and Goeldi maintain that she crushes some of her eggs and usesthem as a substratum for the incipient fungus garden. J. Huber. FIG. 197. Worker ofMcelleriits versicolor ofMexico. Texas and Arizona. (Original.) 33 o ANTS. describes the behavior of the young queen in greater detail and is ableto trace the development of the colony up to the hatching of the firstbrood of workers. I le finds that the female expels the pellet from herhticcal pocket the day following the nuptial flight, it is a little mm. in diameter, white, yellowish or even black in color, and con-sists of fungu> hyph;e imbedded in the substances collected from theants body by means of the strigils on her fore feet and thence depos-ited in her mouth. l>y the third day six to ten eggs are laid. At thistime also the pellet begins to send out hyphse in all directions. Thefemale separates the pellet into two masses on this or the followingday. For the next ten to twelve days she lays about ten eggs daily,while the fungus tiocculi grow larger and more numerous. At first
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectants, bookyear1910
