wheeler: the ants of cub a. 495 



43. Atta (Acromyrmex) octospinosa (Reich). 



Formica octospinosa Reich, Mag. d. thierr., 1793, 1, p. 132 8 . 



This ant is cited as A. hystrix by Gundlach, who found it at Cogimar 

 and at the Coliseo railway station. His collection contains two work- 

 ers with the no. 146. I found it to be common in the coppice growth 

 at Cogimar, but did not see it in other localities. It has probably 

 been introduced into Cuba with merchandise from South America or 

 Trinidad. 



44. Atta (Mycocepurus) smithi Forel var. borinquenensis 



Wheeler. 



Bull. Amer. mus. nat. hist., 1907, 23, p. 718 g . 



A number of workers taken from two colonies in the garden of the 

 ingenio "Armonia" near Bolondron, agree very closely with this 

 Porto Rican variety, though they lack the dark spot on the vertex. 

 They have the pair of median occipital tubercles as large as those 

 on the posterior corners of the head. The colonies were nesting in 

 small crater nests one to one and one half inches in diameter, with 

 central opening, in the deep shade of a sapodilla tree. One of the 

 nests was excavated and on returning to it the following morning I 

 found that the workers were moving in single file to a new crater which 

 they had excavated during the night and were carrying bits of their 

 garden with the fungus which they cultivate and on which they feed. 

 As I have shown in a former paper (The fungus-growing ants of 

 North America. Bull. Amer. mus. nat. hist., 1907, 23, p. 774), 

 M. smithi grows a peculiar fungus like that of Cyphomyrmex rimosus 

 and unlike that of the typical Atta and its subgenera Acromyrmex and 

 Moellerius, on a substratum of caterpillar excrement. 



45. Cyphomyrmex rimosus Spinola var. minutus Mayr. 



Cyphomyrmex minutus Mayr, Verh. Zool. bot. gesellsch. Wien, 

 1862, 12, p. 691 8 . 



Gundlach cites the name of this ant as Cataulacus dcformis F. 

 Smith and took it at Cogimar and Cimarrones. His collection con- 

 tains single male, female, and worker specimens (no. 2). A few col- 

 onies were found near a cave about three miles from Bolondron and 

 at Aguada de Pasajeros. They were under stones. Only traces of 



