. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. ig. 267).In Japan, the easternmost portion of its range, it has developed at leastone variety, fusciceps. In Europe it lives under stones, in logs andstumps, or about the roots of plants and often accumulates considerablevegetable debris about its nest entrances. Those who have studied itshabits are unanimous in regarding it as one of the most gifted andversatile of ants. It is certainly one of the most belligerent, and, at THE SANGUINARY ANTS. 455 least when living in large colonies, assails any intruder with itsmandibles, simultaneously turn
. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. ig. 267).In Japan, the easternmost portion of its range, it has developed at leastone variety, fusciceps. In Europe it lives under stones, in logs andstumps, or about the roots of plants and often accumulates considerablevegetable debris about its nest entrances. Those who have studied itshabits are unanimous in regarding it as one of the most gifted andversatile of ants. It is certainly one of the most belligerent, and, at THE SANGUINARY ANTS. 455 least when living in large colonies, assails any intruder with itsmandibles, simultaneously turning the tip of its gaster forward andinjecting formic acid into the wound. F. sanguined is, to use Was-manns expression, a facultative slave-holder, for it sometimes lives inindependent, slaveless colonies. As it has lost none of its essentialformicine instincts, it is able to excavate a nest, secure its own foodand bring up its own young without the aid of slaves. But even whenthese auxiliaries are present, much, if not most, of the labor of the. FIG. 267. The typical Formica sanguined of Europe. (Original.) a, Dealated fe-male; b, pseudogyne; c, worker; d, head of same, showing the notched clypeus. colony devolves on the sanguined, and there is nothing to show that theslaves contribute anything more to the communal activities than wouldbe contributed by an equal number of small sanguined workers. The normal slaves of F. sanguined are members of the F. fitscagroup, namely, fused, glcbaria, rubcscens, gagatcs, rufibarbis andcincrca, but it occasionally enslaves members of the rufa group (rufa,pratcnsis and their varieties). Wasmann (19020) has published sta-tistics of 410 sanguined colonies found nesting within an area of 4 in Holland. In this region the ratio of slave-containing toslaveless colonies was as 40: i ; that of colonies containing the normalslaves (fused, rufibarbis) to those with pratensis and rufopratensis : i ; and that of the nests containing fus
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectants, bookyear1910
