Dec, 1910.] Wheelkr : North American Camponotus. 221 



to the ground. Even the stalks of the common elder (Sanibiiciis 

 canadensis) are sometimes tenanted, but the more woody bushes and 

 trees are preferred. Near the roots of oaks I have found colonies 

 of rasilis under stones, but these colonies may have been occupying 

 merely temporary nests. 



When kept in artificial nests, our forms of fallax are as stupid 

 and monotonous in their behavior as the European form observed by 

 Forel. The ants huddle together in one of the chambers and show 

 little inclination to move about, even when the weather is warm. 

 Besides feeding and caring for their young, they show little interest 

 in their environment or in one another. 



The North American forms of fallax may be arranged in two 

 series, one of which has the cephalic sculpture and pilosity of the 

 European type, i. c, with the head and especially the cheeks of the 

 workers and females covered with small, rather shallow foveolse which 

 bear very minute, inconspicuous and appressed hairs, whereas the 

 other comprises forms in which the cheeks and clypeus have deeper 

 and more elongate, comma-shaped foveolse, each bearing an erect 

 hair, or bristle, so that the anterior portion of the head is rough and 

 hirsute. Each of these series presents a number of color variations 

 grading from black forms to those in which the body, with the 

 exception of the whole or a portion of the gaster, is yellow or red, 

 and these color gradations seem to run parallel with each other in 

 such a manner that a subspecies or variety with a particular type of 

 coloration and with piligerous foveolae corresponds with a form of 

 similar coloration but without piligerous foveolse. This is shown in 

 the following table which begins with the darkest and ends with the 

 palest forms : 



With piligerous Without piligerous 



foveolse : foveolae : 



cnemidatns nearcticus 



paucipilis minutus 



clarithorax tanqnaryi 



pardus 

 decipiens 



siibbarbatus rasilis 



discolor pavidus 



This table also roughlv indicates the distribution of the various 



