BEHAVIOR OF ANTS 429 



carried the seemingly perplexed and helpless ant into a small 

 deserted spider burrow, where the ant remained until the fly 

 larva had emerged." The fly was at first taken to be a Phorid, 

 but more careful examination proved it to be a new genus and 

 species of Ephydrid^e, a family not previously known to con- 

 tain any species with habits of this description. 



WJieeler's book '-^ on the structure, development and behavior 

 of ants has been already reviewed in a previous number of this 

 journal (Vol. I, No. i, p. 73). 



Woodworth's paper ^^* contains a partial list of the ants of 

 California and a general account of the life history of the Argen- 

 tine ant {Iridomyrmex humilis), which has been recently intro- 

 duced into California and seems to be slowly spreading over the 

 state, occasioning much annoyance in dwellings and driving out 

 the native ants. According to Woodworth the males and females 

 of this ant, though both winged, do not have a nuptial flight. 

 The females must therefore be fecundated by the males in the 

 parental nest (adelphogamy?), but the author fails to tell us 

 whether new colonies are formed by single females or by females 

 accompanied by detachments of workers from the parental 

 colony. It seems certain, however, from his observations that 

 the species spreads slowly, probably not more than an eighth 

 of a mile a year except when transported by man. " There are 

 many cases where the ant has not crossed the road during the 

 two years it has been under observation." 



