Eleventh Report of the State Entomologist 111 



The female is very rarely met with by the ordinary observer and the 

 same is true of the males which are also winged and resemble them in a 

 general way. 



Fig. I. — The little red ant, Monomorium Ph.-^raonis; a, female; 6, neuter or worker — enlarged. 

 (After Riley, Insect Life, iii, Divis. Entomol., U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



The neuters or workers are by far the most numerous and are the ones 

 commonly seen infesting victuals of all kinds. They are wingless and 

 of a honey-yellow color. The female after she has lost her wings and 

 a neuter are represented in Figure i. 



Habits of the Pest. 



It is not so much the loss caused by their devouring food that troubles 

 the housekeeper, as their getting into everything. Few people like to 

 pick them out of food or to eat from plates over which they have been 

 running, or to see them upon the table linen; yet, when abundant it is 

 almost impossible to keep them away. Though not generally known, a 

 large number of these insects in food can impart to it an agreeable acid 

 flavor: such was the experience of a man eating in the dark a section of 

 jailroad pie that swarmed with them {Insect Life, v, p. 268). The sting 

 of this ant is like a puncture made by a fine needle. 



These pests are attracted to almost everything in the house ; sweets 

 greases, dead insects, even shoe polish and bath sponges have been 

 reported as attractive to them. They will also damage collections of 

 insects and are pests in breeding cages for insects. They are very per- 

 sistent in the search for food even when closely covered, and their small 

 size makes it difficult to exclude them. In badly infested houses it has even 

 been found necessary to place the legs of the dining tables in water to 

 keep them out of the food after it had been served. They form their 

 nests in almost any secluded spot either in or just outside of the house, 



