December, '16] WHEELER: INDIAN ANT INTRODUCED 567 



The genus Triglyphothrix Forel is exclusively pali"eotropical and 

 comprises some twenty described species, about evenly divided between 

 tropical Africa and the Indomalayan region. T. striatidens was first 

 described from Burma by Emery in 1889 as a subspecies of T ohesa 

 Ern. Andre and was cited for some time under this name by both Emery 

 and Forel. Later it was given specific rank. Bingham, who found it 

 common and widely distributed in India, Ceylon and Burma, claimed 

 that it "differs constantly both in Indian and Burmese specimens" 

 from ohesa, but the differences are not very striking and seem not to be 

 constant. 



The contention that striatidens originated in Southern Asia is, of 

 course, based on its abundance in that region. Its tendency to spread 

 into other tropical and subtropical portions of the Old World was first 

 noticed by Emery, who in 1891 recorded it from Tunis and stated 

 that Ern. Andre had recently received it from Sierra Leone. In 1901 

 Forel recorded it from the Bismarck Archipelago and in 1902 from 

 Australia, where it was taken by Turner near Mackay, Queensland. 

 Forel described this form as a distinct ' variety, australis, although it 

 differs only slightly if at all from the typical Indian form. That it is 

 still very rare or local in Australia is indicated bj^ my inability to find 

 it in Queensland or in the large collections of ants sent to me from this 

 and other portions of the commonwealth. In 1909 I recorded the 

 occurrence of T. striatidens in Formosa, where it was taken by Mr. 

 Hans Sauter. In 1912 Stitz described from the Island of Ceram as 

 T. ceramensis, which, to judge from the description, is hardly more than 

 a variety of striatidens. In 1913 Forel cited striatidens from Sumatra, 

 where it was taken by von Buttel-Reepen. I find in my collection a 

 single typical worker taken at Kuching, Borneo, by Mr. J. Hewitt and 

 a dealated female taken by Mr. D. T. Fullaway on the Island of Guam. 



When common tropical ants begin to spread beyond their native 

 environments, they are very apt to be introduced with plants into the 

 hot-houses of temperate regions. As early as 1906 Bingham found 

 T. striatidens in the propagating pits of the Kew Botanic Garden, in 

 England, and in 1905 and 1908 Dornisthorpe recorded it as common 

 in the Palm House of the same institution. 



Forel was the first to notice that striatidens had been transported 

 and had secured a foothold in the New World. As early as 1900 he 

 received specimens of a small variety which he called Iccvidens, that 

 had arrived at Hamburg from Mexico in a living conditioij with or- 

 chids, and more recently (1912) he announced the occurrence of the 

 typical striatidens in Barbados. In 1902 and 1911 he stated that this 

 ant was actively "becoming cosmopolitan." Mr. Barber's specimens 

 show that it has now made its appearance in the Southern States. 



