. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. nursing habits of theMammalia, but when we stop to consider that ants are in the habit offeeding their young and one another with a secretion of the labial, orsalivary glands, we can see no reason why, in certain species, thethoracic glands might not be developed for a similar purpose. It willbe very interesting, nevertheless, if future investigation proves that cer-tain species of Cremastogastcr, a genus whose members are so con- 374 AXTS. spicuously fond of feeding on the saccharine excrement of aphids andcoccids, have themselves developed a
. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. nursing habits of theMammalia, but when we stop to consider that ants are in the habit offeeding their young and one another with a secretion of the labial, orsalivary glands, we can see no reason why, in certain species, thethoracic glands might not be developed for a similar purpose. It willbe very interesting, nevertheless, if future investigation proves that cer-tain species of Cremastogastcr, a genus whose members are so con- 374 AXTS. spicuously fond of feeding on the saccharine excrement of aphids andcoccids, have themselves developed a capacity for distilling a substanceresembling honey-dew. In the foregoing pages the habit of developing repletes has beenshown to recur sporadically in at least six different genera of ants,namely, Prcnolcpis, Mclnphonts, Plagiolcpis, , Campo-notiis and Mynnecocystns. We are therefore dealing with a case ofconvergent development and as in other cases of this kind, we areled to determine the external conditions that act as the common. FIG. 221. Replete Myrmecocystits horti-deorum in the act of regurgitating food toworkers of the ordinary form. (McCook.) stimulus in calling forth this peculiar adaptation. The geographicaldistribution of the various honey ants seems to point to drought asone of the most important of these conditions, for nearly all ofthese insects are confined to the dry plains and deserts of NorthAmerica, South Africa and Australia. Forel seems to be the onlyauthor who has noticed this peculiarity in the distribution of the honeyants. He says (1902^): The extraordinary distension of the cropseems to be frequent in the Australian species of the genera Melo-phonts, Camponotus and Leptomynnex. I suppose that this is due tothe extremely dry climate of the country, which must compel the antsto remain, often for long periods, in their subterranean abodes. Atsuch times a store of provisions in living bags must be very useful tothem. There can be little dou
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectants, bookyear1910
