. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. for a distance of 10 or20 m. when their rapidly diminishing bodies melted away against thebrilliant, cloudless sky. Many pairs, hesitating to take flight, chasedone another about on the surface of the nest. The amorous malesseized many of the females before they could leave the crept forth in great numbers and gulped down quantities ofthe fat females, while others were borne off into the air by large robberflies (Asilid;e). By a little after three oclock the males and femaleshad left the nest and only the workers were seen pursu
. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. for a distance of 10 or20 m. when their rapidly diminishing bodies melted away against thebrilliant, cloudless sky. Many pairs, hesitating to take flight, chasedone another about on the surface of the nest. The amorous malesseized many of the females before they could leave the crept forth in great numbers and gulped down quantities ofthe fat females, while others were borne off into the air by large robberflies (Asilid;e). By a little after three oclock the males and femaleshad left the nest and only the workers were seen pursuing the quiet THE HARlESTING ANTS. 289 routine business of bringing in seeds. Later in the afternoon innum-erable fertilized and dealated females which had descended from theirflight, were running hither and thither over the ground in search ofsuitable places in which to establish their formicaries. At nightfall aterrific shower, amounting almost to a cloud-burst, descended on thecountry. \Yheii I arose the following morning the weather was clear. FIG. 164. Section of nest of Pogonomyrmex occiJcutulis. showing arrange-ment of chambers and of some of the connecting galleries. (Photograph hy Dean.) again, but I was unable to find a single female on the rain-scoured and all had been swept into the streams that were booming throughthe gullies and canons on their way to the Colorado River. At 12 saw about the entrance of a nest a few males and virgin femalesand on digging into it detected several others. An examination of 20 -Jyo ANTS. other colonies, wliicli had celebrated their nuptial flight the daybefore, revealed the same conditions. It is certain, therefore, thatihe nialciicicns colonies do not throw off all their males andfemales during the nuptial flight, and are thus able to avoid a com-plete destruction of the annual sexual generation. This conclusionis also borne out by the observations of Mr. W. H. Long, Miss and Miss M. llolliday, who witnesse
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectants, bookyear1910
