. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. FIG. 213. Worker of Prenolepis(Original.) a. Worker in ordinary condition;/, replete. .V- ANTS. temporarily, thai is, till the contents of the crop, or ingluvies, have beendistributed. The conditions >een in Prenolepis may he said to represent one ofthe incipient stages in the development of the true honey ants. Thisdevelopment is characterized first, by an exaggeration of the tendencyto repletion, second, by a restriction of this tendency to certain workers,and third, by repletion becoming a permanent morphological modifica-tion. as r
. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. FIG. 213. Worker of Prenolepis(Original.) a. Worker in ordinary condition;/, replete. .V- ANTS. temporarily, thai is, till the contents of the crop, or ingluvies, have beendistributed. The conditions >een in Prenolepis may he said to represent one ofthe incipient stages in the development of the true honey ants. Thisdevelopment is characterized first, by an exaggeration of the tendencyto repletion, second, by a restriction of this tendency to certain workers,and third, by repletion becoming a permanent morphological modifica-tion. as repletion does not set in until after the worker hatches,\ve must regard it as an acquired physiological state depending on theenvironment, that is, amount of nectar or honey-clew obtainablein a given locality. Although all workers are able to distend theircrops considerably while foraging, true, or perfect repletes are devel-. FIG. 214. Replete worker of Melofhorus bagoti of Australia. (Original.) oped only within the nest, where they remain and store the sweetsbrought in by the foragers, and thus function as living bottles or casksto which the hungry workers can resort during seasons of scarcity orfamine. Honey ants have been described from North America, South Africaand Australia. The various species show considerable differences inthe degree of gastric distension which they are able to attain. In somecases this is no greater than that of Prcnolcpis, in others the gastermay be swollen out till it forms a perfect sphere, so large and with wallsso tense and easily ruptured that the insect cannot walk about and iscompelled to lead a quiescent life, hanging by its claws from the roofsof the nest chambers. This extreme degree of distension is reachedin certain subspecies and varieties of our American species of Myrme-cocystus. The various known honey ants may be described in theorder of increasing development,
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectants, bookyear1910
