6o IV HEELER. [VOL. II. 



their much larger eyes and their ocelli, have the same timid, 

 groping habits as the workers. When fully mature the males, 

 like the males of Ponera, are positively heliotropic and nega- 

 tively stereotropic. 



Stigmatoinuia appears to be very sensitive to low tempera- 

 tures. It passes the cold nights and mornings even during 

 August and September curled up, with its broad head covering 

 the tip of its abdomen. When dug out of the soil some 

 moments elapse before it straightens and begins to run about. 

 It probably passes the winter in the convoluted conditions. 



For fully four weeks after my colonies were placed in arti- 

 ficial nests the ants refused to eat, although I tried a great 

 variety of foods. When small living insects were placed in 

 the nest they were cautiously attacked, the ant advancing, 

 snapping at them with its long mandibles, and then retreating. 

 This whole action was a very feeble imitation of the snapping 

 I have described for OdontomacJius. 1 The insects thus killed 

 were not eaten, but covered with particles of earth. Finally 

 the ants consented to eat some of the larvae and pupae of 

 Formica pallide-fulva, and a little later they became very 

 fond of raw meat. While feeding, the huge mandibles are kept 

 closed with overlapping tips. The insects are obliged to slide 

 them over the food in order to reach it with the tongue and 

 maxillae. Like other ants, they are unable to swallow solid 

 food, but after rasping off a small mass with the tongue, they 

 press it in the subpharyngeal pocket, thereby extracting its 

 juices, and then spit out the small oblong ball of residue. The 

 whole process of forming and disposing of these " boulettes de 



4 



nettoyage " is exactly like that described by Janet for Formica 

 rtifn, Lasius jui.vtns, and Vespa crabro? The workers of Stig- 

 matomma were never seen feeding one another or their queens ; 



1 Loc. cit., pp. 12-14. 



Snr 1'organe de nettoyage tibio-tarsien de Myrmica rubra L.," Ann. Sof. 

 /:nt </< /-'ranee, tome Ixiii, p. 697, 1895; " Sur Vespa crabro, histoire d'un nid 

 depuis son origine," Mem. Soc. Zool. de France, tome viii, p. 76, 1895; Sur le 

 Lasius mixtus 1'Antennophorus Uhlmanni, etc., pp. 16, 17. Limoges, 1897. The 

 agricultural ant, Pcgonomyrmex I'nrbatiis Sm., when fed on starchy substances, 

 like rolled oats, literally sprinkles the floor and walls of its nest with snow-white 

 " boulettes." 



