. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. Forels account is is true that the sudden admission of light into the nest causes theants to forsake their cocoons, but when one stops to watch the nest 23s .-L\TS. lor a few moments, one is sure to see the ants returning one by oneand stealthily removing their charges. This they do rather awkwardly,walking backwards and dragging the cocoons away without liftingthem from the ground, in marked contrast with Lobopclta cloayata,which straddles the cocoon with its long legs and carries it avvav withsurprising dexterity. A simple expe
. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. Forels account is is true that the sudden admission of light into the nest causes theants to forsake their cocoons, but when one stops to watch the nest 23s .-L\TS. lor a few moments, one is sure to see the ants returning one by oneand stealthily removing their charges. This they do rather awkwardly,walking backwards and dragging the cocoons away without liftingthem from the ground, in marked contrast with Lobopclta cloayata,which straddles the cocoon with its long legs and carries it avvav withsurprising dexterity. A simple experiment with the artificial nestshows that the cocoons of Poncra, when removed to a distance of threeor four inches from the chamber in which the ants have stored them,are taken back in the space of ten to thirty minutes. Forel deservescredit for directing attention to this matter of the care of the cocoons,for when one has observed the way in which a large and highly special-ized ant, like Formica schaufnssi, for example, when its nest is uncov-. FIG. 136. Odontoponera transversa of the Indomalayan Region, a, Worker: b, head of same from above. (Bingham.) ered, rushes out in the very face of danger to rescue its cocoons, theslow and awkward movements of Poncra certainly indicate a moreprimitive, or possibly degenerate condition quite in harmony with itsother habits. Further evidence that it cares for its cocoons is seen inits habit of continually creeping in and out among them, and in thetime which it devotes to licking and cleansing them when there are nolonger any larvae to require its attention. Forel is also of the opinion that Poncra callows, unlike those ofhigher ants, may be able to escape from their cocoons without theassistance of the workers. I have not observed the hatching of , but in another Ponerine of similar habits, Stigina-tomina pallipcs, I have surprised the callows in the act of escaping fromtheir cocoons. Several cocoons were isolated in a wa
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectants, bookyear1910
