402 MORRIS M. WELLS 



cusses fully the psychology of ants. The book contains many 

 original observations on the behavior of ants especially in the 

 section devoted to Lasius. In the psychological discussion the 

 author speaks of the ants throughout as though they were pos- 

 sessed of human consciousness. This is hardly justifiable at 

 the present stage of our knowledge. 



Donisthorpe (9) here records observations on the marriage 

 nights of Donisthorpe sp. (Lasius sp.). He calls attention to 

 the fact that these nights seem to be timed to some extent by 

 weather conditions such as temperature, humidity, etc. 



Elliott (10) describes fungi found in the nests of two British 

 ants (Lasius niger and L. umbratus). The characteristic fungi 

 were found in all the nests examined and no other species were 

 found. The author thinks that perhaps the ants weed out the 

 foreign species 



Emery (11) in 1908 and 1909 succeeded in starting two ex- 

 perimental societies of Polyergus rufescens. These colonies 

 were united in 1910 and the single resultant colony has been 

 kept going since that time. In the present paper the author 

 tells of taking the nest of Amazons into his garden where he 

 opened it and allowed the ants to explore the surrounding terri- 

 tory. He was thus enabled to make detailed observations on 

 the behavior of the ants. He observed them while they raided 

 colonies of Formica jusca var. glebaria and F. rufibarbis. In 

 July 1914 the ants were allowed to establish themselves in the 

 soil in a courtyard of his villa. For the remainder of the summer 

 and up to Oct. 2, the ants made sorties into the surrounding 

 territory but got no plunder as there were no nests of slave species 

 in the yard. Emery believes that workers of the Amazons, 

 leaving the nest singly, discover nests of slave species and re- 

 turning, determine at least the initial direction taken by the 

 army when it goes out. He noted that most of the sorties occur 

 late in the afternoon, usually between 4:20 and 7:00 p. m. 



Flint (12) records observations made every night for nearly 

 two months on movements of Lasius niger americanus at Bloom- 

 ington, 111. It was frequently noted that on warm nights when 

 the ants were very active they would attack and kill many small 

 insects that came near their nests. 



Jones (13) in a short paper includes ants among the insects 

 that carry the spores of pear blight in California. The list given 



