128 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 7 



books and papers. One index is alphabetical by authors, the other by 

 subjects. 



The war halted the preparation and publication of many papers, as 

 it also curtailed the number able to come to the laboratory for studies. 

 During the war the laboratory was, of course, very active on problems 

 relating to the war, particularly deterioration, corrosion, fungi, chemi- 

 cal problems, and related matters, but very few of these findings will 

 appear in print. It is also known that papers have been published of 

 which we have no record. It is a difficult task to cull all the litera- 

 ture, and probably the index is only 80 percent complete. Neverthe- 

 less, it is an amazing record. 



SCIENTISTS AND THEIR STUDIES 



Dr. T. C. ScHNEiRLA, curator of the department of animal behav- 

 ior, American Museum of Natural History, perhaps the highest au- 

 thority living on the behavior pattern of army ants, spent from Feb- 

 ruary 7 to June 16, 1946, on the island, continuing his studies. A 

 summary of his findings follows : 



"These studies on army-ant behavior and its biological basis were 

 begun on the island in 1932, and were continued in the rainy-season 

 periods of 1933, 1936, and 1938. The work began as an attempt to 

 analyze the complex behavior system of these ants as a case study of 

 'instinct,' but as it went along inevitably led into other special prob- 

 lems, such as the social organization of the army ants, and the rela- 

 tionship between reproductive processes and behavior. 



"To investigate the last problem in particular a project was plamied 

 for 1942 ; however, the war interfered. Since all the preceding studies 

 had been made in the rainy season, it was especially desirable to ob- 

 tain evidence on the activities and adaptations of the Ecitons in the 

 dry months. Plans for an intensive investigation under dry-season 

 conditions were resumed in 1946. 



"The basis of the study was the surveying of activities and condi- 

 tions in two colonies, one of Eciton hamatum and one of E. burchelli, 

 for as long a time as possible in the dry months. Other colonies of 

 these two species were kept on record as far as possible for briefer 

 periods, and supplementary field and laboratory tests were carried out 

 on relevant problems. The object was to learn as much as possible 

 about what changes may occur in the activities and in the brood pro- 

 duction of these ants in the dry season. 



"If there is any other situation in the world today where such a 

 project involving correlated field and laboratory studies can be carried 

 out advantageously, I have yet to learn of its existence. The results 

 of this project illustrate the island's advantages. On the day of my 

 arrival, Februarj^ 7, I found a colony of E. hurchelli bivouacked on 



