112 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and from these retreats sally forth. M. Bellevoye failed to observe in 

 France that the ants carry off any food to their nests, but they will do so 

 in this country according to the observations of Dr. Riley. Very little 

 food will maintain a large host of them. According to some interesting 

 observations by M. Bellevoye, a small piece of liver after having two or 

 three thousand ants working at it for a few days did not look damaged, 

 and it was only after a score of days of such treatment that its interior 

 was entirely hollowed out. Freshly killed insects, as cockroaches, also 

 greasy bones and masses of sweets appear to be particularly attractive. 



This species is also common in fields and gardens where it sometimes 

 does much injury to corn by gnawing the blades when but a few inches 

 high for the purpose of drinking the sweet exuding juice. Dr. Fitch 

 reports this species so abundant in 1850 in some fields as to threaten the 

 cutting off of every blade of corn. 



Although this little ant is such a nuisance in the house, it has at least 

 one redeeming habit; it is an active and efficient enemy of that disgust- 

 ing household pest, the bed-bug. This habit is so well known in the 

 Southern States that a writer in the Farmer and Fruit Grower (Florida) 

 has recommended the introduction of the ants in houses for the pur- 

 pose of exterminating the bed-bugs. Mr. Marlatt {loc. cit., p. 38) records 

 the following interesting case where the ants proved themselves benefactors 

 to humanity during the late war: Mr. Theo. Pergande, when he was with 

 the Union army, occupied at one time barracks at Meridian, Miss., 

 vacated some time before by the Southern troops and which proved to 

 be swarming with bed-bugs. The little red ants discovered the bugs, 

 invaded the building in large numbers, and in a single day dismembered 

 or carried away bodily every bug. 



Life-History. 



Each nest of these insects contains several females laying hundreds of 

 eggs each and well attended by workers whose duty it is to care for the 

 eggs and larvae and also to provide the females with food. It would 

 appear that neuters are produced during most of the summer, as in the 

 case of many ants, and that the winged females and males are not pro- 

 duced until in the autumn. M. Bellevoye failed to obtain any sexed 

 individuals until the last of September and in October, during which 

 time he took 239 males and 577 females (but 14 winged); in November 

 and till December 6th he took 203 wingless females; no other sexed 

 individuals were found, although there were thousands of neuters before 

 that time. The sexed individuals appeared successively and not sim- 



