October, '08] journal op economic entomology 291 



comparatively scarce in the Park section. Iridomyrmex liumilis, 

 which was then practically absent as far as my observations went, has 

 almost displaced the lot. So much for the upper end of the city. 



In 1893 my newspaper duties began to take me down daily into 

 the neighborhood of the Sugar Exchange, or two squares below Canal 

 Street and within a very short distance of the river. The variety or 

 sub species of F. sanguinea was common ; in fact, I watched one nest 

 located at the corner of the sheds on N. Peters and Bienville streets 

 until four years ago; since then it has mysteriously disappeared. 

 Practically all of the species (with the exception of Camponotus), 

 just noted for Audubon Park were quite common in this locality. 7. 

 humilis was present, but it was very scarce. Today this latter species 

 seems to have almost completely supplanted the others and has become 

 a veritable pest. Collecting at this period was also done in the neigh- 

 borhood of the slaughter houses, some three miles below Canal Street. 

 It was a rare insect there until 1895 or 1896. This covers my obser- 

 vations for the lower end of the city. 



In these early days of entomological activity I lived on St. ChaHes 

 Avenue, nine squares from the river and twelve from Canal Street. 

 In 1891 the ant was there in fair numbers but in nothing like the 

 hordes it is today. That it had made its way east from the river 

 seventeen years ago may thus be taken as established ; how far east I 

 am unable to say, but I have no recollection of having seen it at this 

 period at the AVest End resort on Lake Pontchartrain. Five or six 

 years later I was living on Peters Avenue, near St. Charles Avenue 

 and in the uptown district. I. humilis was then present but not abun- 

 dant. Thus uptown it had extended its range not only to the north 

 but east as well. In 1904 Mr. Titus, of the government Bureau of 

 Entomology, found it prevalent all over this district, and across the 

 Mississippi River as far west as Lafayette and Opelousas, while j\Ir. 

 New^ell now reports it from Lake Charles. In 1906 I did not notice 

 it at the Gulf Biologic Station, some fifty miles south of Lake Charles, 

 but I have little doubt but that it has reached there, seeing that there 

 is constant steamboat communication between the two places. 



I have no recollection of having seen the insect in the early nine- 

 ties while collecting at Shell Beach, on Lake Borgne, neither have I 

 any notes of its presence at Abita Springs, Slidell, Pearl River or 

 Mandeville, all on the east side of Lake Pontchartrain and where it is 

 decidedly the most abundant species now. Solenopsis genwmfa and 

 Monomorium pharaonis were the most conspicuous of the red ants, 

 while C. herculeanus, sub species j)ennsijlvanicus, was just as commi^n 

 in the woods. At all of these stations I. humilis seems to be ousting 

 all other species. 



