24 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 9 



planted, by a small ant. Early in June, 1911, the senior author 

 visited several fields where injury was reported and collected a large 

 number of the ants, specimens of which were sent to Dr. W. M. 

 Wheeler 1 who determined them as Solenopsis 7nolesta Say. In inves- 

 tigating this injury it was found that several hundred acres of kafir 

 had been destroyed and that many fields had been replanted three and 

 four times. In 1912 and 1913 the reports of injury increased and it 

 became evident that this pest was worthy of some investigational work. 

 Accordingly, in 1914, a field experiment station was established at 

 Winfield, Kansas, and the junior author placed in charge. This 

 station has now been in operation two years and during that time con- 

 siderable progress has been made toward a knowledge of this insect's 

 life economy. 



Classification and Syngnomy 



Solenopsis rnolesta belongs to the family Formicidse, sub-family 

 Myrmicinae. It was originally described by Thomas Say in 1835 as 

 Mijrmica molesia. Dr. W. M. Wheeler has kindly furnished the 

 following synonomy of this species : 



Myrmica molesia Say, Boston Journ. Nat. Hist., 1, 1836, p. 293. 

 Myrmica exigua Buckley, Proc. Ent. Soc. Phila., 1866, p. 342. 

 Solenopsis debilis Mayr, Verhand. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien. 36, 1886, p. 461. 

 Solenopsis molesia Emery, Zool. Jahrb. Abth. f. Syst., 8, 1894, p. 277. 



There has been considerable confusion existing between Solenopsis 

 molesta and the tiny house ant, Monomorium pharaonis Linn. Several 

 writers considered Say's Myrmica molesta as a synonym of Monomorium 

 and Mayr believed this to be the case when he described Soleyiopsis 

 debilis. According to Doctor Wheeler, ''Emery was the first to in- 

 sist that this was merely a synonym of Say's molesta." 



There are a number of references in the American literature to 

 Solenopsis fugax, which is a European species. Doctor Wheeler in a 

 recent letter-says, " Solenopsis fugax is a European species and does not 

 occur in this country. It is extremely close to Solenopsis molesta, 

 however. Undoubtedly all references to fugax in American literature 

 refer to molesta." For this reason the American references to fugax 

 have been considered in this paper. 



Distribution 



Solenopsis molesta has a wide geographical distribution, being found 

 over most of the eastern half of the United States. 



iThe writers desire to express their appreciation to Doctor Wheeler for determin- 

 ing the ants mentioned in this paper and for supplying the synonomy of Solenopsis 

 molesta. 



