No. 2.] HABITS OF POA'ERA AND STIGMATOMMA. 55 



Forel goes on to say of P. coarctata l : " Je soupc_onne que 

 chez ces fourmis, moins sociales que les autres, les nymphes 

 sortent seules cle leurs cocons, sans avoir besom de 1'aide des 

 9." For the purpose of testing this supposition, I tried to 

 surprise the ants in the act of leaving their cocoons, but I was 

 not successful, notwithstanding numerous workers, males and 

 females, were hatching in my artificial nests. A large number 

 of cocoons from several different nests, and apparently in a 

 healthy condition, were isolated in small dishes, but they failed 

 to hatch. On the other hand, the workers opened many 

 cocoons, extracted the dead or moldy pupae, cut them up 

 into pieces, ate portions of them, and deposited the remainder 

 on the refuse heap. I shall show when I come to consider 

 Stigmatomma pallipcs that these acts, which resemble what I 

 formerly described for Leptogenys and regarded as indirect 

 proof that the living callows are assisted in their escape from 

 the cocoons, are of no value as evidence in this matter. 



On hatching, the workers of Ponera are light dirty yellow, 

 and very gradually, in the course of several days, acquire their 

 dark color. The abdomen remains pale longer than the head 

 and thorax. The females are more mature on hatching, hav- 

 ing the head and thorax brown. The males are quite black 

 and fully mature soon after leaving the cocoon. 



In concluding this account of P. coarctata a few myrme- 

 cophiles that dwell with this ant may be mentioned. In two 

 nests, one from Rockford, 111., the other from Colebrook, Conn., 

 I found a small brown Pselaphid beetle. In a single nest in 

 the latter locality a minute Staphylinid was taken. In this 

 locality also were found some peculiar mites, often attached in 

 pairs on either side of the node and the first abdominal seg- 

 ment. Their symmetrical position resembles that of the 

 mites AntcnnopJiorus and Discopoma infesting the Lasius um- 

 bratus mixtus Nyl. of Europe. 2 Wasmann 3 enumerates as 



1 Loc. cit., p. 443. 



2 See Janet, fitudes sur les fourmis, les guepes, et les abeilles. Note 13. 

 Sur le Lasius mixtus 1'Antennophorus Uhlmanni, etc. Pp. 1-62, 1 6 figs. Limoges, 

 1897. 



3 Kritisches Verzeichnis der myrmekophilen und termitophilen Arthropoden. 

 Berlin, 1894. 



