426 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Nov. , '08 



But I added that I should soon be in Florida and hoped to 

 find again specimens of the rare little creatures. As I had 

 looked for them already for ten years with no success this hope 

 seemed an uncertain and feeble thing. I cherished it, how- 

 ever, and searched often in the most promising spots for the 

 tiny Saldiid but always vainly. 



As often happens in this odd life of ours I found it at a 

 time when I was not hunting for it, not even thinking of it. 

 I had been delighted to discover for the first time a colony of 

 Atta, one of the ants which make fungus-gardens. I had read 

 with great interest of their habits and Mr. William T. Davis 

 had told me of watching colonies at Lakehurst. I was much 

 excited over my own recognition of the little gardeners. For 

 several days I spent hours at a time bending over the nest 

 and watching the ants returning from their quest with ma- 

 terial for planting or keeping up the fungus-garden. It was 

 while I was trying to keep track of one of those on its cir- 

 cuitous, wandering way that I noticed a strange looking ant 

 on the damp soil. Not thinking of Saldoida, interested at the 

 moment in ants and ants only, I wet my finger and lifted the 

 creature to drop into my bottle. As I did so I was conscious 

 that I had crushed it. Now ants do not crush easily and the 

 apparent softness of this one's body surprised me. But I 

 forgot it in a minute as I intercepted the next little agriculturist 

 and robbed him of his small burden. I was much occupied 

 for the rest of that day and so did not even look over the con- 

 tents of my various alcohol and cyanide bottles. But lying 

 awake that night and living over, as one often does, the field 

 experiences of the day I thought suddenly of the crushed in- 

 sect. In a flash I remembered Saldoida and felt that I had 

 again found one of the genus. I could not wait but struck a 

 light, poured out the contents of the cyanide bottle and with 

 my magnifying glass searched for the specimen. I found it, 

 broken and crushed but plainly recognizable as what I had so 

 long sought. 



Of course I went to the spot next morning; in fact I went 

 nowhere else, spending hours at the damp piece of ground 



