THE INSECTS OF NEW JERSEY. 655 



Family FORMICID^. 



This includes the ants, so well known to all that description is un- 

 necessary. The structural character that distinguishes them is the 

 possession of one or two nodes or scales at the base of the abdomen, 

 forming segments. Ants are usually social, and form colonies, large or 

 small, in which workers or wingless, undeveloped females predominate. 

 The perfect, sexed individuals are winged, but the female strips off these 

 appendages when she starts a colony. The larvae are footless and help- 

 less grubs, which must be fed with food properly prepared by the 

 workers. Nests are found in all sorts of places, including houses, and 

 in feeding habits they are almost omnivorous. None of our species are 

 directly injurious to field crops, but many of them are indirectly harm- 

 ful from their habit of protecting plant lice and storing their eggs during 

 the winter. In spring the young lice are colonized on suitable food- 

 plants which could not be otherwise reached, and the carriers thus be- 

 come injurious, though they do not themselves feed on any cultivated 

 plants. Although many ants eat other insects, yet none of them are- 

 specific enemies to any definitely injurious form, hence there is no bene- 

 ficial habit to their credit. 



Some of the larger colonies are complicated assemblages, containing 

 not only the species that form it, but slaves, scavengers, messmates and 

 other associates in great variety. The study of their habits and rela- 

 tions is a fascinating one, and many publications on the general subject 

 are available. 



The present list has been prepared by Dr. William Morton Wheeler, 

 our leading American authority on the subject, and the determinations 

 can be relied upon. The notes are from the annotated list published in 

 the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History in 1905. 



Where ants infest houses they should be attracted to sponges dipped 

 in sugar water, laid near where they run; when a sponge becomes filled 

 with the insects it should be thrown into boiling water and replaced by 

 another. This sort of warfare kept up for a few days so demoralizes the 

 ants that, owing to the inexplicable disappearance of so many of their 

 comrades, they leave the house. Fresh bones or meat scrapings serve 

 as well as sponges, and should be burned when covered. This sort of 

 campaign serves only against those small forms that nest in houses. 

 It is not available against those large forms that come in from outside 

 nests on foraging expeditions. 



When ants infest lawns they can be cleaned out by pouring bisulphide 

 of carbon into the main entrance or entrances. The heavy fumes follow 

 the galleries and kill larvae as well as adults. One application is usually 

 sufficient; but in a very large nest a second may be required. Where a 

 hill is extensive, with many openings, punch three or four holes with 

 a cane at as many points, pour the bisulphide into these and close with 

 the foot. 



Names in the previous list not found in this are omitted for lack of 

 authentication, and as the insects occur throughout the year dates are- 

 not usually given. 



