. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. olichoderinae, which have a thin and pliable integu-ment that permits a considerable expansion of the gastric walls. Inthese ants the crop is oftenso distended with the sac-charine liquids above men-tioned that the sclerites areforced apart and appear asdark spots or islands on thetense intersegmental mem-branes. Through these thelimpid ingluvial contentsmaybe distinctly seen whilethe other organs of thegaster are forced upagainst its walls. Thiscondition is often noticedin foraging workers of ourcommon species of Campo-notus, Lasius, Brachymy
. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. olichoderinae, which have a thin and pliable integu-ment that permits a considerable expansion of the gastric walls. Inthese ants the crop is oftenso distended with the sac-charine liquids above men-tioned that the sclerites areforced apart and appear asdark spots or islands on thetense intersegmental mem-branes. Through these thelimpid ingluvial contentsmaybe distinctly seen whilethe other organs of thegaster are forced upagainst its walls. Thiscondition is often noticedin foraging workers of ourcommon species of Campo-notus, Lasius, Brachymyr-ex, Prenolepis and Ny-anderia. In P. iniparis,for example, a small black or brown ant, which is very widely dis-tributed over temperate North America, the crop may be so greatlydistended with nectar or honey-dew (Fig. 213) that the insect, whichordinarily has a quick and graceful gait, can only waddle alongwith some difficulty. All of the workers of the Prenolepis colonyseem to be able to assume this replete condition, but they retain it only. FIG. 213. Worker of Prenolepis(Original.) a. Worker in ordinary condition;/, replete. .V- ANTS. temporarily, thai is, till the contents of the crop, or ingluvies, have beendistributed. The conditions >een in Prenolepis may he said to represent one ofthe incipient stages in the development of the true honey ants. Thisdevelopment is characterized first, by an exaggeration of the tendencyto repletion, second, by a restriction of this tendency to certain workers,and third, by repletion becoming a permanent morphological modifica-tion. as repletion does not set in until after the worker hatches,\ve must regard it as an acquired physiological state depending on theenvironment, that is, amount of nectar or honey-clew obtainablein a given locality. Although all workers are able to distend theircrops considerably while foraging, true, or perfect repletes are devel-
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectants, bookyear1910
