THE DEGENERATE SLAVE-MAKERS. 



497 



male taken in Crete. As both species are related to Wheeleriella 

 saiitscliii, Emery believes that they lack the worker caste. 



3. Svnipheidolc elccebra (Fig. 277, A). This species, which is 

 much smaller than Wheeleriella (female 2.75-3 mm.; male 2.5-2.75 

 mm.), lives in the nests of Pheidole ceres, a common ant in the moun- 

 tains of Colorado and New Mexico at altitudes between 2,500 and 3,000 

 m. The parasites and host are very similar, but the female of the 

 former is much smaller, has a more rounded head and a very broad 

 post-petiole. I have seen only two females: one taken by Schmitt 

 in a ceres nest at Boulder, Colo., the other with eighteen males, 

 taken by myself August 17, 1903, in the Ute Pass, near Manitou 

 in the same state. The ceres colony in which I found these ants was 

 carefully examined, but contained only workers and soldiers of the 

 host species, and besides the adult parasites, a number of their pupse. 

 Xo workers of the latter species could be detected, though from 

 what we know of other ants, they should have been in the nest, 

 if they exist at all, at the time of maturity of the males. When the 

 nest, which was under a stone, was first disturbed, the Pheidole 



workers seized the para- 

 sites and their pupse and 

 quickly carried them into 

 the galleries. As there are 

 usually from one to five 

 dealated queens in the un- 

 infested colonies of ceres, 

 their absence in this nest 

 shows that they must have 

 been eliminated. And as 

 the elecebra queens are 

 very small and feeble com- 

 pared with the ceres queens 

 (which measure 5-5-5 



FIG. 277. Parasites of Pheidole. (Ongi- ... , , 



nal.) A, Dealated female of Symphcidole ele- mm.), it IS probable that 



cebra ; B, dealated female of Epipheidole in- the latter are killed bv their 

 qitiliiia. . , ' . 



own workers and soldiers. 



4. Epipheidole inquilina (Fig. 277, B). Like the Sywipheidole, 

 this ant resembles its host, which is also a common Pheidole (P. pili- 

 fera}. Emery (i893-'o4) saw the small queen of Epipheidole (length 

 3-3.3 mm.) among some soldiers and workers of pilifcra collected in 

 Nebraska, but he regarded the insect as an unusually microgynic 

 Pheidole. During late July and early August, 1903, I found near 

 Colorado Springs three colonies of Ph. coloradcnsis, a subspecies of 



33 



