The honey-ant of the United States and Mexico has been investigated by M‘Cook and others; the chief peculiarity of the species is that certain individuals are charged with a sort of honey till they become enormously distended, and in fact serve as leather bottles for the storage of the fluid. The species _Myrmecocystus hortideorum_ and _M. melliger_, are moderate-sized Insects of subterranean habits, the entrance to the nest of _M. hortideorum_ being placed in a small raised mound. The honey is the product of a small gall found on oak leaves, and is obtained by the worker-ants during nocturnal expeditions, from which they return much distended; they feed such workers left at home as may be hungry, and then apparently communicate the remainder of the sweet stuff they have brought back to already partly charged "honey-bearers" left in the nest. The details of the process have not been observed, but the result is that the abdomens of the bearers become distended to an enormous extent (Figs. 62, 63), and the creatures move but little, and remain suspended to the roof of a special chamber. It is considered by M‘Cook that these living honey-tubs preserve the food till a time when it is required for the purposes of feeding the community. The distension is produced entirely by the overcharging of the honey-crop, the other contents of the abdomen being {153}forced by the distention to the posterior part of the body. Lubbock has since described an Australian ant, _Melophorus inflatus_, having a similar peculiar habit, but belonging to the allied tribe Plagiolepisii. Quite recently a South African honey-tub ant belonging to the distinct genus _Plagiolepis_ (_Ptrimeni_ For.) has been discovered, affording a proof that an extremely specialised habit may arise independently of relation between the Insects, and in very different parts of the world. Species of the genus _Lasius_ are amongst the most abundant of the ant-tribe in Britain. They are remarkable for their constructive powers. _L. niger_, the common little black garden-ant, forms extensive subterranean galleries, and is extremely successful in the cultivation of various forms of Aphidae, from the products of which the species derives a large part of its subsistence. The ants even transport the Aphidae to suitable situations, and thus increase their stock of this sugary kind of cattle, and are said to take the eggs into their own dwellings in the autumn so that these minute and fragile objects may be kept safe from the storms and rigours of winter. These little creatures are brave, but when attacked by other ants they defend themselves chiefly by staying in their extensive subterranean galleries, and blocking up and securing these against their assailants.