THE MARRIAGE-FLIGHT OF A BULL-DOG ANT 

 (MYRMECIA SANG UINEA F. SMITH) 



WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER 



During a recent visit to Australia I had an opportunity to 

 study in the field the habits of a number of species of the large 

 ants popularly known as ' bull-dog ants," belonging to the 

 very primitive genus Myrmecia. This genus comprises some 

 sixty described species, subspecies and varieties, all confined to 

 Australia and the island of New Caledonia. They bear about 

 the same relation to the more specialized and more modern 

 ants that the Marsupials of Australia bear to the placental 

 mammals of other continents. Many of the species are among 

 the largest of ants, several of them are beautifully colored and 

 sculptured, and all of them sting or both sting and bite severely. 

 In his latest work on the Ponerinae in the "Genera Insectorum" 

 Emery divides the genus Myrmecia into three subgenera, Myrme- 

 cia sens, str., Pristomyrmecia and Promyrmecia. I have found 

 that the species of these three groups differ greatly in nesting 

 and other habits. A detailed account of my observations will 

 be published later in connection with taxonomic descriptions of 

 the various forms. Here my remarks will be mainly confined 

 to one of the largest and most aggressive species, Myrmecia 

 sanguinea F. Smith, an ant which must be widely distributed 

 in Australia, since it has been recorded from Queensland, New 

 South Wales, South and Western Australia and Tasmania. I 

 found it very abundant at Salisbury Court, near Uralla in 

 northern New South Wales, where, through the courtesy of 

 the government entomologist, Mr. W. W. Froggatt, I was able 

 to spend a few days at a laboratory recently established for the 

 study of the blow-flies that have acquired the unfortunate habit 

 of injuring living sheep. 



In the open forest surrounding the laboratory there are many 

 large nests, of sanguinea, mounds of earth of a more or less 

 conical shape, varying from three to five feet in diameter at 

 the base and one to two feet in height. The surfaces of these 



