186 



HYMENOPTERA. 



ocelli, and the second abdominal knot-like ring is verj^ trans- 

 verse. A. clypeata Smith is a Mexican species. 



In Eciton the man- 

 dibles nearly equal 

 the length of the in- 

 sect itself. Tills ge- 

 nus is the most 

 ferocious of all the 

 ants, entering the nest 

 of species of Formica 

 and tearing them, 

 limb from limb, and 

 then carrying olT the 

 remains to their own 

 houses. 



Eciton Mexiccma 

 Roger (Fig. 114, 

 worker major, o, front 

 view of head, show- 

 Fig. 114. ing the immense 

 sickle-like mandibles, and only the two basal joints of the 

 antennsB ; Fig. 115, worker minor, with a front view of the 

 head, showing the mandi- 

 bles of the usual size). 

 This species, with Eciton 

 Snmichrastl Norton, (Fig. 

 116, worker minor) has 

 been found by Professor 

 Sumichrast at Cordova and 

 Orizaba, Mexico. 



The males of Eciton are 

 not yet known. Smith 

 supposes that Labidus (a 

 genus allied to Dorjlus) is 

 the male form, and Sumi- 

 chrast tliinks this conjec- 

 ture is "sustained by the 

 fact that it is in the season when the sorties of the Eciton 

 are the more frequent that the Labidus also show themselves." 



