Feb. '08] JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 23 



esting- information and in fact he secured a surprising amount of data 

 in the limited time at his disposal. Since 1904 the species has fre- 

 quently been referred to in the Louisiana press, usually as ' ' the ant. ' ' 



As with most imported species, the original time and place at which 

 a foothold was obtained by the Argentine ant in Louisiana, must be 

 largely conjectured. However, we are able to conjecture with rather 

 strong circumstantial evidence to guide us. Not only does the testi- 

 mony of inhabitants indicate New Orleans to be the original starting 

 point of this species in the South, but its enormous numbers and the 

 extent to which it has exterminated other species of Formicina con- 

 firm the opinion that it has been in New Orleans longer than elsewhere. 



For the earliest record of its occurrence in New Orleans, I am in- 

 debted to Mr. Ed. Foster of the editorial staff of the New Orleans 

 Daily Picayune. Mr. Foster has for years been a close student of 

 insect life, and especially of Hymenoptera, so that his testimony may 

 be accepted with the same confidence as that of a professional ento- 

 mologist. Mr. Foster first noted humilis in New Orleans in 1891 and 

 in a personal letter to the writer he thus gives the record : 



"I have known the species since 1891. At that time it was a rarity 

 in Audubon Park, but was very common in the section immediately 

 above Canal Street. Below Canal Street it was not at all plentiful. 

 The boundary of the nuisance then was virtually from Magazine Street 

 to the river. The coffee ships from Brazil, I understand, have always 

 landed about where the wharves are now situated (on the river front, 

 adjoining the area above-mentioned), but from what we know of the 

 spread of insect nuisances, the first batch of immigrants must have 

 come in years before I came across their descendants. ' ' 



Mr. Titus, quoting Mr. Baker, former Superintendent of Audubon 

 Park, states that in 1896 "they extended over but a small area, 

 reaching approximately from Southport docks to Carrollton Avenue, 

 and from the river back to Poplar Street," and that "in 1899 they 

 were first noticed in Audubon Park." This area, from Southport to 

 Carrollton Avenue, is located about five or six miles northwest of the 

 area between Magazine Street and the river, noted by Foster to be 

 well infested as early as 1891. Mr. Baker therefore had not been 

 familiar with the original area of heavy infestation, but merely noted 

 the species after it had invaded the part of the town where he resided. 

 Mr. Titus's information regarding the species being first noted in 

 Audubon Park in 1899 was of course secured from citizens, who failed 

 io note the ant until it had reached prodigious numbers in the same 

 place that Foster had found it a "rarity" in 1891. The dissemination 

 to Audubon Park was undoubtedly from the heavily infested area 

 between Magazine Street and the wharves already referred to. 



