1 62 WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER. 



Wheelerimyrmex are nonparasitic and epigaeic. The occurrence 

 of Cepobroticus only as a hypogaeic inquiline, or guest in the fungus 

 gardens of Sericomyrmex may be regarded as an ethological 

 character which still further emphasizes its subgeneric status. 



The Cepobroticus symmetochus worker measures only 3-3.5 

 mm., the female 3.8 mm., the male 3 mm. It is therefore the 

 smallest known species of its genus. The body is very smooth 

 and shining in all three phases and in the worker and female 

 yellowish red, with the appendages scarcely paler and the dorsal 

 median third of the gaster dark brown or blackish. The male is 

 paler and more yellow throughout. All the castes, and especially 

 the worker and female, are covered with rather coarse, long, 

 golden yellow hairs. For other characters the taxonomic de- 

 scription and figures may be consulted. 



The colonies of the Cepobroticus so frequently found living with 

 Sericomyrmex amabilis were decidedly less populous than those of 

 their host. The largest comprised less than 75 individuals, and 

 often the number did not exceed 40 or 50. In every nest a 

 dealated mother queen was present. She usually took up her 

 station, surrounded by a group of her workers, in one of the 

 crypts of the fungus garden a short distance half to three 

 quarters of an inch from the Sericomyrmex queen. The guest 

 ants kept their brood in small clusters scattered through the 

 garden and each cluster was cared for by a few workers. Al- 

 though the ants and their brood were thus intermingled, the 

 workers of each species lavished their attention exclusively on 

 their own eggs, larvae and pupae and were never seen even to 

 transport the progeny of the other species from one part of the 

 garden to another. 



The workers and queens of Cepobroticus are rather alert and 

 move about more rapidly than their hosts. They devote so much 

 time to licking and fondling one another that the observer is some- 

 what astonished to find them paying little or no attention to the 

 fungus-growers. As a rule the two species are indifferent to one 

 another. One may watch them for hours without observing 

 anything more than rather distant, mutual antennal salutations. 

 On rare occasions a worker Cepobroticus may be seen licking the 

 gaster of a Sericomyrmex worker or of the sluggish queen. More 



