THE FINDING OF THE QUEEN OF THE ARMY ANT. 145 



colonies of the species on the island, which is an animal and plant 

 reservation, and because it is not an agreeable task to tackle a 

 populous colony of one of the larger Ecitons. Fortunately 

 Tiamatum is far from being as vicious or from stinging as badly as 

 E. burchelli, though the soldiers (Fig. 4) are able to run their 

 recurved mandibles into one's skin in such a manner as to make 

 them as difficult to remove as an equal number of fish-hooks. 



Just before dusk we matured and carried out the following plan : 

 A towel saturated with ether was tightly wedged into the bottom 

 of a five gallon gasoline tin from which the top had been removed. 

 After cautiously cutting away the main supports of the frame- 

 work of twigs, the tin was suddenly inverted over the mass of 

 ants, and at the same time one of the party sprayed those left 

 outside the receptacle with "Komo," a preparation used for 

 killing house-flies and mosquitoes. The whole mass of asphyxi- 

 ated insects, which measured two and one-half gallons, and 

 comprised many thousands of individuals, was then examined. 

 The queen was found, together with a great number of nearly full 

 grown worker larvae, but no pupae, a considerable amount of prey, 

 mainly ant and wasp larvae and pupae, and a series of interesting 

 ecitophiles. On the following morning the hamatum workers and 

 soldiers, which had been out foraging when the main body of their 

 colony was captured, were found to have formed four small 

 compact clusters, each about the size of an orange at widely 

 separated points in the jungle. As usual under such circum- 

 stances these meager remnants of a vigorous population had a 

 demoralized and dejected appearance. In the course of a few 

 hours they decamped and disappeared in the undergrowth. 



The E. hamatum queen (Figs. 5, 6 and 7) measures 15 mm. 

 (head, thorax and petiole 6.5 mm., gaster 8.5 mm.) and differs 

 from the queen of E. burchelli Westwood in the following par- 

 ticulars: The color is uniformly ferruginous red, of a distinctly 

 paler tint than in burchelli, and there are no markings on the 

 gaster, except some brownish clouds on the middle of the second 

 to fourth segments, near their posterior borders, and a few 

 brownish spots on the fifth segment. The mandibles are shorter 

 and slightly broader, the antennal funiculi longer and stouter, the 

 cheeks more inflated, the antennal foveae larger and more sharply 



