INTRODUCTION ci 



lives in very small communities, usually of four or five to a dozen individuals, in woody 

 places, where the ground is covered with dead leaves, or in more open places under logs 

 or stones. It is often common under stones on the edges of the mountain streams. 

 Throughout great areas of forest land, where the fauna is chiefly endemic, it is the sole 

 representative of the Ants. It varies much in colour, and in some localities the majority 

 of the individuals observed were conspicuously reddish. 



The leptogenys is possibly a natural immigrant, frequenting the lowlands and low 

 mountain elevations. It nests both in tree trunks and dead wood, and in porous 

 cavities of lava blocks. Its prey consists of Isopod Crustaceans, the remains of which 

 are nearly always to be seen in heaps about or within the nest. It is fond of migrating 

 from one spot to another, especially during the rainy season, and processions of these 

 ants carrying their cocoons are a familiar sight in gardens in Honolulu. Sometimes we 

 have found nearly every plant of a group of bananas to be occupied by colonies of the 

 Leptogenys, these being disclosed when the leaves are stripped from the stem. No 

 winged female has ever been found, though winged males are numerous. All the 

 wingless examples are very similar, a slight difference in the length of the sting being 

 the only distinction noticed between individuals. The winged male has, however, been 

 taken in copula with one of these worker-like examples. 



MvRMiciDAE. — This family is represented by a number of widely distributed or 

 cosmopolitan forms of no interest in our fauna. I believe nearly all have been imported 

 by man, and se\eral new species have appeared since Prof. Forel's paper was published. 

 Some of these ants are frequent inhabitants of houses, though they all flourish outside, 

 e.g. Pheidole megacepha/a, Monomorium vastator, M. Jioricola, and Cardiocondyla 

 ■wroiighionii, the latter breeding freely on some of the steamships plying between 

 Australia and California, or Australia and Vancouver. 



Cardiocondyla nuda is found in the mountains and on the coast alike. It is 

 abundant in Honolulu, but was not collected by Mr Blackburn, so is probably of recent 

 introduction. It varies a good deal in colour. 



Solenopsis geniinata and Pheidole megacephala have their nests infested by the 

 Myrmecophilous cricket, M. qiiadrispitia, and in that of the latter small Lepismidae are 

 of frequent occurrence. Neither these nor the crickets, however, are confined to 

 nests of these ants, for they equally infest those of some of the foreign Formicidae 

 {Prenolepis). 



Pheidole megacephala is the most abundant of all the foreign ants. In many parts 

 it occupies not only the whole open country, but also the forests to a height of about 

 2000 ft. in the mountains. In open country it sometimes becomes established as high 

 as 4000 ft., and may be numerous at three thousand. Usually, where forests are dense, 

 it ceases to range above about 1200 to 1500 ft. of elevation, while in its range, no 

 matter how fine or how dense the forest may be, the endemic fauna, save for a few 



