LITERATURE FOR 1916 ON ANTS AND MYRMECOPHILS 421 



with serious results. This ant (1) is also the bane of nurserymen, 

 since it protects aphids in great numbers. The ants build mud 

 shelters over the aphids and see that the young lice are placed 

 on the tenderest shoots. 



The summer nest of the Argentine ant is located anywhere 

 (1) but in the autumn the summer colonies tend to concentrate 

 into larger colonies. They cannot stand the wet, freezing con- 

 ditions of winter in the open, but seek a warm, dry place in 

 which to hibernate. Thus they may frequently be found spend- 

 ing the winter in manure piles or other heat generating rubbish. 

 When these winter colonies break up in the spring, the ants are 

 particularly annoying, as they spread out, looking for summer 

 homes. 



In an artificial formicary (1) a queen Argentine ant lays 

 from 3-30 eggs daily. The eggs are immediately taken by the 

 workers and piled with others. Being slightly sticky they cling 

 together and are handled in clumps. 



Further ant pests, which may but await importation from 

 the tropics, are indicated in the papers by Mann (12) and Craw- 

 ley (5). Crawley in publishing notes on the ants from British 

 Guiana, lists a number of species that would seem to be poten- 

 tial house pests. Solenopsis corticalis lives exclusively in habi- 

 tations and is fond of all food stuffs. This species is a severe 

 pest in entomological laboratories. It possesses a powerful 

 sting. Tetramorium guineense is a serious pest in cane fields. 

 It stings readily and painfully, and is sometimes so numerous 

 that it is next to impossible for the cane cutters to work in the 

 fields. Atta cephalotes kills all kinds of cultivated plants and 

 Paraponera clavata possesses a sting that frequently brings on 

 a fever. To give the ants of Guiana full credit one should 

 mention Ectatomma quadridcns, which lives in the cultivated 

 areas; this species is beneficial in the cane fields as it carries off 

 the larvae of a moth and a weevil borer. It also destroys the 

 egg clusters of the moth. Mann (12) records an instance of 

 beneficial behavior upon the part of Eciton praedator which he 

 saw emerging from a commissary building in countless numbers 

 and carrying an " incredible number of insects, mostly cock- 

 roaches." Mann, however, lists a number of other species that 

 must possess serious detrimental potentialities should they once 

 gain foothold in temperate regions. Snyder (17) has continued 



