HICKORY. TRUNK WALNUT ANT. ITS BURROW. 151 



lar appressed hairs on the middle and posterior parts, leaving a broad brown 

 band behind the middle (which is interrupted at the suture and sometimes 

 does not attain the outer margin), and at the base a similarly colored band, 

 which, posteriorly, is gradually shaded and without any definite edge. The 

 anterior half of the elytra is punctured, the punctures black and becoming 

 more dense and coarse towards and at the base, where they open backwards 

 and have their anterior edges elevated into little callous points, rendering the 

 surface rough and shagreened, each puncture yielding a short black bristle. 

 The hooks of the feet are pale yellow. 



Mining long narrow passages in the trunk and limbs, and staining the 

 wood light brown; a longish, black, shining ant, its abdomen with 

 equidistant transverse rows of fine bristles, two rows upon each seg- 

 ment. 



The Walnut Ant. Formica Carj/oe, 

 The fact is reported in the Albany Cultivator (1853, page 116) 

 by C. B. Brown, of Damascus, Pa., that a house that was overrun 

 with ants had been rid of this pest by placing a piece of shag- 

 bark hickory wood upon a shelf in the pantry where these ver- 

 min appeared to be the thickest. The ants gathered upon this 

 billet of wood in the course of an hour or two in such numbers 

 as literally to cover it, whereupon they were brushed and shaken 

 off into the fire, and the stick was replaced to collect another 

 swarm; and in this mode the house was soon entirely cleared oi 

 them. No reason is assigned for the ants being thus attracted by 

 this wood, but there can be no doubt that the sweet syrup-like 

 sap of the hickory was more congenial to their taste than any 

 other food within their reach, and was the cause of their collect- 

 ing together in the manner stated. And it is quite probable that 

 a recently cut piece of hickory wood may prove in other cases 

 one ol the best traps for these pests, which occasionally become 

 quite an annoyance in our dwellings. Hickory and walnut trees 

 whilst growing are also a favorite resort of these insects, and we 

 have one American species which appears to be a constant resi- 

 dent upon them, to the great injury of the trees. In the winter 

 season I have repeatedly met with little clusters of this ant, when 

 searching for insects under the loose scales of bark of the hickory, 

 and on coming recently to work up some of these trees for foe], 

 these same ants were found in the wood, occupying most of the 

 galleries which the tiger cerambyx had bored therein, which gal- 



