LITERATURE FOR 1916 ON ANTS AND MYRMECOPHILS 433 



in solid wood. The tunnels of their nests therefore run parallel 

 to the grain of the wood. 



Among other interesting notes on the ants of Brazil, Mann 

 (12) describes the habits of the ant Pseudomyrma arboris, which 

 he says lives in trees of the genus Triplaris. The natives say 

 that this species never lives anywhere else and never lives on 

 any but the live tree. Also, in all live trees of this genus, the 

 ant is to be found living in the hollow parts of the stem. That 

 the ants protect the trees is easily demonstrated, for they are 

 very pugnacious and possess a painful sting. Whether or not 

 they receive any advantage from the tree, other than that of 

 being furnished a place to nest, is not determined. Crawley 

 (5) describes the ant Cryptocerus minutis as being very sluggish 

 and states that it will remain absolutely motionless on a leaf 

 for hours at a time. Smith (15) saw, on April 15, 1916, Trachy- 

 myrmex septentrionalis out for the first time that spring, in 

 South Carolina. The workers, he says, were taking apple petals 

 into the nest for the purpose of growing fungus on them. Beebe 

 (2) collected and examined four square feet of tropical jungle 

 ground stratum and found 1,000 species of animals therein. 

 Ants made up 30 per cent of this total. Termites were also 

 abundant. Two new genera of ants testify to the unexplored 

 state of this part of the jungle. Most of the ants were found 

 below the surface layer; in fact this middle layer contained 

 four-fifths of all the animals found. The ants were living in 

 small colonies in the semi-decayed twigs. The colonies seem to 

 be complete though there were only 5-15 individuals in any 

 given colony. 



REFERENCES 



1. Barber, Ernest R. The Argentine Ant. Distribution and Control in the 



U. S. U. S. Dept. Agric. Bull, No. 377. 1916. 23 pp. 



2. Beebe, C. W. Fauna of Four Square Feet of Jungle Debris. Zoologica, 



. Scientific Cont. of N. Y. Zool. Soc, 2, pp. 107-19. 



3. Brun, R. Orientation from a Distance in Ants. Rev. Suisse Zool., 24, pp. 



355-88. 



4. Crawley, W. C. Note on Myrmecophily. Ann. Nat. Hist., 17, pp. 377. 



5. Crawley, W. C. Ants from British Guiana. Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 



17. 



6. Donisthorpe, H. Epitritus wheeleri, New Sp. An Ant New to Science; 



with Notes on the Genus Epitritus, Emery. The Entomol. Record and Jour, 

 of Variation., 28, pp. 121. 



7. Donisthorpe, J. K. Myrmecophilous Notes for 1915. Entomol. Record., 



28, pp. 1-4, 33-38. 



