316 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



foraging. It is not certain that drones take it. The continual produc- 

 tion of new bees may enable a stock to make s^ood its losses from disease^ 

 but there is no recovery of sick bees nor any ultimate survival of a badly 

 infected stock. Some other diseases may be mistaken for Isle of Wight 

 disease. It is an infectious disease, but not causally connected with 

 Nosema apis. J. A. T. 



Mountain Ants of Western North America.— W. M. Wheeler 

 {Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts Sci., 1917, 52, 457-569). Ants are specially 

 fitted for the mapping out of geographical regions, for they are not 

 dependent on specific food- plants ; their colonies are stable and stationary 

 entities ; they are very sensitive to climatic and otiier environmental 

 influences. They may ascend to a great height in their nuptial flights, 

 but no colonies are established at high altitudes, and the wing-muscles 

 are not capable of being used for more than a few hours after fertiliza- 

 tion. The author has made a study of the conditions of humidity 

 (warmth, slope exposure, steepness, and so on) that determine the distri- 

 bution of mountain ants, and has analysed the characteristics of various 

 ant faunas in North America. J. A. T. 



The Argentine Ant in Madeira.— M. C. Grabham {Rep. British 

 Assoc, 1919, 87, 209). Insidiously introduced into Madeira, Iridcmyr- 

 7nex humilis has suppressed competing species, has established destructive 

 colonies up to 2,500 ft. above sea level, has ruined coffee cultivation, many 

 fruit trees {Citrus especially), and crops of sweet potatoes {Batatus), and 

 has invaded every house. There is no winter weather to check the 

 increase. Poultry, young birds, and bees are defenceless. The ants are 

 ingenious and persistent in food-searching. They transplant the pupjB 

 to favourable conditions. They make bridges to reach flies caught on 

 sticky fly-paper. The females are mostly impregnated within the 

 formicary and immediately afterwards shed their wings. There is great 

 harmony in working, and there is a singular absence of fighting when 

 separate communities meet. The ant's enemies are few. Spiders devour 

 them ; and one spider in particular, Pholcus phalangioides, is very 

 formidable. Chalk powder is a useful counteractive, and banding witla 

 rags soaked in corrosive sublimate. A circle of powdered potassium 

 cyanide round one lemon tree killed all the comers and goers, and 

 showed that 40,500 ants had been tending the scale-insects on this one 

 tree. The ant appears to be as serious a pest as Colorado beetle or 

 cotton-boll weevil. One hope is in eventual exhaustion and decreased 

 fertility. J. A. T. 



Australian Cerapachyini. — W. M. AVhekler {Proc. Amer. Acad. 

 Arts Sci., 1918, 53, 215-G5, 17 figs.). The Cerapachyini are of unusual 

 interest to the myrmecologist, because they represent one of the most 

 primitive sections of the most primitive sub-family of ants, the Ponerinje, 

 and because they are so closely related to the sub-family Dorylimi) as to 

 suggest that the latter must have arisen from Cerapachyine ancestors. 

 They form small colonies, like most Ponerina^. The species of 

 Eusphinctus (with the i)robal)le exception of E. turneri) are hypogasic 

 in habits, a peculiarity also indicated by the absence of eyes in the 



