No. i.] A STUDY OF SOME TEXAN PONERINAE. 3 



stones or logs, on moderately dry hill-slopes, often in the shade 

 of trees or bushes, more rarely in the open fields. In these 

 same localities O. Jiaematodcs does not occur. The few nests 

 which I have seen belonging to this species were under stones 

 lying on a dry sandy loam in a different part of Travis County. 

 The exact distribution of these forms must be left for future 

 determination. 



It is not an easy matter to ascertain the exact number of 

 individuals in any colony of the three species of Ponerinae. 

 When the stone or log that serves as a roof to the nest is 

 lifted, some of the ants always manage to escape, either into 

 the surrounding vegetation or into their burrows. This is 

 especially true of L. elongata and P. liarpax, both of which, 

 when excited, are very rapid in their movements. As a rough 

 estimate it may be said that the nests of L. elongata contain 

 from 10 to 50, those of P. Jiarpax from 15 to 100, of O. Jiaema- 

 todcs from 100 to 200 individuals. 1 



The nests of the three Ponerinae agree in being of a very 

 primitive structure. They consist of a few simple and irregular 

 burrows, or galleries, some of which run along the surface of the 

 soil immediately beneath the stone or log, while others extend 

 down into the soil obliquely or vertically to a depth of 8 or 

 10 inches. These burrows may anastomose, but they are not 

 widened at certain points to form chambers, as in the nests of 

 the more specialized ants (Atta, Pogonomyrmex, Camponotus, 

 etc.). Even in artificial nests of the Lubbock pattern the 

 Ponerinae dig only anastomosing galleries scarcely more than 

 a centimeter in diameter. 



Owing to the interest which attaches to the sexual phases 

 of the Ponerinae, considerable effort was made to secure both 

 the winged and apterous forms of the Texan species. Of 

 O. haematodes only workers were seen, but as the full series 

 of phases of this species -- including the winged male, winged 

 female, and the apterous ergatoid female, as well as the worker 



1 In tropical America (teste Forel, loc. cit., passim) P. harfax, race Montezumia, 

 Smith, O. haematodes, and the species of Leptogenys make their nests also in rotten 

 wood, and the first species is said to nest also in dry, hollow stems. The colonies 

 of O. haematodes are probably more numerous in individuals in the tropics than 

 at Austin. 



