30 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY , [Vol. 9 



yellow, while the body color is a shining ])rown. The wings are 

 hyaline. The antennae have no club, as in the case of workers and 

 queens, and the scape is also much shorter. The first funicular joint 

 is enlarged to form the Johnstonian organ. 



Habits 



Locally, this species is known as the "kafir ant." Farmers whose 

 crops have suffered from this pest know well the character of injury 

 done, but seldom are acquainted with the depredator. This is, in 

 part, due to their minute, size and the hypogaiic habits, although they 

 are sometimes found on the surface of the soil. 



The workers damage planted kafir seed in the same manner that has 

 been reported by Forbes (13) for corn, who describes that injury as 

 follows: "A kernel may be found wholly or partly hollowed out, the 

 mealy interior being not devoured, but scattered about the earth, 

 while the cuticle or outer shell of the seed remains but little disturbed." 

 He is also of the opinion that the ants eat out the corn seed for the 

 purpose of getting the oil. These attacks may occur before or after 

 germination takes place, and in the case of kafir and other sorghums 

 which they are known to damage, the seed apparently must be softened 

 by moisture before they are attacked. Seeds that are injured after 

 germination produce weak plants that soon perish. In southern 

 Kansas, cane, milo, feterita, and maize also suffer to a more or less 

 degree from the ravages of this pest. Workers have also been found 

 feeding on windfall apples and plums, dead grasshoppers, larvae, 

 pupae and adults of the maize bill-bug {Sphenophoi'us maidis Chittn.), 

 larvae of the corn-stalk borer {Papaipema nitela Gn.), larvae of the 

 Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor Say), grasshopper eggs, pupae of the 

 corn ear-worm {Chloridea obsoleta Fabr.), and in 1905 they killed many 

 larvae of the white-marked Tussock moth (Notolophus leucostigma 

 Smith & Abbot) in rearing cages at the Kansas Station. 



The Colony 



Nests are found in many different locations. Isolated nests are 

 difficult to locate because of the small openings which are frequently 

 some distance from the true nest. The colonies are numerous, but by 

 far the easiest ones to locate are under rocks in pasture land. Nests 

 have also been found in kafir, wheat, rye, oats, and alfalfa fields and 

 are reported being in houses, but there are no records of this nature 

 in Kansas. 



