Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-08-25
A LIVING HONEY-COMB.

THE HoNEY-BEARING ANT OF NEW MEX
ICO,-A FORMULATING SWEETMEAT.
Much as has been written about the mar
wells of instinct, there are still discoveries
of great interest to be made in this prolific
field. Particularly in the domain of those
insect Yankees, the ants with their Won
derful ingenuity and human-lil1e manners
and customs there is room for extended OBJ
ServationS.
Some lately-discorered facts in relation
to them are SO curious and interesting that
it may be advisable to give them greater
publicity than they have yet obtained.
Some of these facts have long been known
to the world of science, but not to the pub
lie. Others are new discoveries. As
whole they form one of the most surpris-
ing chapters in the history of animal life
and continuance.
Varied as are the social habits of the
ants, it is generally considered that social
bees surpass them in one particular, namely,
their mode of storing supplies of winter
food, the store-houses of ant-food having
no contrivance similar in ingenuity to the
honey-comh. with its rich supply of the
sweets of life.
But the truth is that certain tribes of
ants are we'll aware Ofthe value of natures
sweetmeatsas articles of food, and have de-
veloped mode of storing up their winter
honey still more curious than that prac-
ticed by the bees.
They possess, in fact what may be called
living honey-combs; perambulatnly cells
filled with distilled sweetness. We refer
20 the honey-bearing ants of New Mexico,
concerning which some very interesting
facts have been brought to light
III.
noted observer of ants ant-life, has been
interviewing these honey-bearers, and his
results differ so widely from the ordinary
facts of insect instinct that they cannot
but prove of general interest. These ants
had been previously known only in New
Mexico. but he discovered them in Colorado
nhabitIng the locality known as the Gar
den OF the Gods" their nests being eXca-
vated in the stony crests of low ridges
which run through this mountain-girt par
adise-
The ridges are composed of a friable
sandstone, into which our minute masOns
mine deeply, digging galleries which some
times run for several feet into the rock.
The nest, outwardly, is some ten inches III
diameter by from two to three and half
inches in height, composed of sand and bits
of stone carried from Within some of which
ants to move them.
Inside the nests successive chambers are
excaTated, connected by galleries, the floors
of the chambers being comparatively
smooth, while the ceilings are left in a
rough state. But this roughneSS is no evil
dence OF careleSsneSS in the builder. 1t has,
on the contrary, an important object: this
is to furnish foothold for the clinging feet
of certain extraordinary-looking creatures
which form the living honey-combs of
which we have spoken.
Fancy an animal with the head and
thorax of a small ant, but with all the pos
terror portion of the body converted into a
round sac, of the size of a lage pea, and of
a rich translucent amber hue-it being in
fact distended into reservoir of honey
This honey-bag is immense when COM
pared with the size of the ant, the I'M
changed parts of which might pass for
black pins head attached to the side of a
marrow-fat pea. These odd-looking crea-
lures cling to the roof of the chamber with
their feet, the distended honey-bag hanging
downward like an amber globe. On seeing
:, them we instinctively imagine that their
leg-muscles must be developed III a fashion
to put to shame those of human athletes,
since it is no light weight which they are
thus forced TO continuously support.
In each chamber of the nest about thirty
honey-bearers are found, making some
three hundred to complete the nest. Be-
sides these there are hundreds or thous-
ands Of others, workers and soldiers, lords
and queens, TO whom the honey-bearers
serve as store-houses of winter IOod
Dr. McCook succeeded in bringing some
of these home with him alive, providing
them with nest-building materials, and
with sugar for nutriment. He has one very
interesting nest In a glass bottle, with its
interior chamber well displayed. The
roof of this is covered with depending
globules of honey, so large as to almost
conceal the minute clinging insect of which
they really form part
But the marvellous feature of the case
yet remains to be described. Not only is
the abdomen of the ant converted into a
receptacle for honey, but the whole inter
nal economy of the body is transformed
for this purpose All the organs Of the
abdomen have quite disappeared: viscera,
nerves, veins, arteries, have alike vanished;
and there remains only a thin transparent
skin, which is capable of great distention.
1t IS thus IN reality a honeywell, and much
stranger than that of the bee, the waXen
walls of the latter being replaced in this
case by the tissues of a living animal. The
creature can afford to dispense with the
abdominal organs, since its life-duties are
so metamorphosed that it has henceforth to
act as an animated sweetmeat.
DIR. McCook's observations enabled him
to discover that the working ants, return
ing from their outdoor toraglng with their
bodies distended with the honey they have
somewhere harvested, enter the chambers
Of the nest and eject this sweet fluid from