Vol. XLIX 



September, 



No. 3 



BIOLOGICAL BULLETIN 



THE FINDING OF THE QUEEN OF THE ARMY ANT 

 ECITON HAMATUM FABRICIUS l 



WILLIAM MORTON .WHEELER. 



After the peculiar, large-bodied, wingless females, or queens of 

 the army ants of the American tropics belonging to the typical 

 subgenus Eciton had been sought in vain for many years by many 

 collectors I finally succeeded in July, 1920, in securing two queens 

 of Eciton burchelli Westwood in British Guiana, and the same year 

 published an account of their capture. 2 Since that time the 

 queens of three other typical Ecitons have been discovered in 

 rapid succession. In August, 1920, Mr. F. M. Gaige took the 

 queen of E. vagans Roger in Colombia, but has not yet described 

 the specimen. In 1923 Dr. Carlos Bruch published an account 

 with fine figures, of a queen of E. dulcius Forel, subsp. jujuensis 

 Forel, which he took in the Argentine. 3 He has also described a 

 queen of Eciton hetschkoi Mayr, captured by Weiseran July 1923 

 in the same country. 4 The latter is not, however, a true Eciton, 

 but belongs to the subgenus Acamatus, which occurs also in our 

 Southern United States, from which I have described the queens 

 of three species (schmitti Emery, opacithorax Emery and caro- 

 linense Emery). More recently Reichensperger has published a 

 description of the queen of E. quadriglume Haliday, from four 

 specimens taken by Franciscan brothers on the Rio Negro, 

 Brazil in the fall of 1923. 5 This Eciton is very closely related to 



1 Contributions from The Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Institution, 

 Harvard University, No. 244. 



2 "Observations on Army Ants in British Guiana," Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and 

 Set., 56, 1921, p. 291-328, 10 figs. 



3 "Estudios Mirmecologicos," Rev. Mus. de la Plata, 27, 1923, p. 172-179, i pi. 

 8 text-figs. 



4 "Descripcion de la reina 'Eciton (Acamatus) Hetschkoi' Mayr," Rev. Soc. 

 Argent. Cienc. Nat., 7, 1924, p. 232-235, 2 pis., 4 figs. 



5 "Das Weibchen von Eciton quadriglume Hal., einige neue ecitophile Histeriden 

 und allgemeine Bemerkumgen," Zoo/. Anzeig., 60, 1924, p. 201-213, 5 figs- 



10 139 



