. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. ing, because theMediterranean, the African deserts andthe steppes to the eastward were so manybarriers to their progress. The Euro-pean ant-fauna therefore remains com-paratively poor. The mixture of arctic and tropical forms in the amber, a peculiaritywhich characterizes the other insects and the plants no less than theFormicidse, has not been satisfactorily explained. Heer endeavored toaccount for it on the following assumption : It is probable that thesucciniferous forests also covered Scandinavia and that the coniferswere able to grow even
. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. ing, because theMediterranean, the African deserts andthe steppes to the eastward were so manybarriers to their progress. The Euro-pean ant-fauna therefore remains com-paratively poor. The mixture of arctic and tropical forms in the amber, a peculiaritywhich characterizes the other insects and the plants no less than theFormicidse, has not been satisfactorily explained. Heer endeavored toaccount for it on the following assumption : It is probable that thesucciniferous forests also covered Scandinavia and that the coniferswere able to grow even on the high mountains. As the amber regionextended from Scandinavia to Germany, where a sea separated it fromthe remainder of the Germanic continent, we may see in this naturalbarrier the cause of the peculiar fades of the amber flora. It pre-sents to our view the Scandinavian type of the Tertiary, mixed, in allprobability, with a mountain or subalpine type. It is, in fact, con-ceivable that the plants and animals, embalmed as thev were in their. FIG. 96. A, Female of Hy-popomyrmex bombiccii, a singu-lar Myrmicine ant from theSicilian Amber. (Emery.) b,Side of head, showing eye andantenna more enlarged. FOSSIL ANTS. 169 elegant amber sarcophagi, could be carried long distances withoutsustaining the slightest injury and could, therefore, present this excep-tional appearance, which is seen nowhere else in the plants and animalsof the ancient world. If we suppose that a river flowed down from theSweden of that day and opened into the Tertiary sea near Dantzig,there would be nothing irrational in admitting that this stream mighteasily carry the amber in the resinous state from the distant localitiesand mountains of Sweden, so that the organic remains enclosed in theamber may have been gathered together from an extensive territory,from low as well as from mountainous countries, and may even belong
Size: 1207px × 2071px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectants, bookyear1910
