Ho4 



supply is located, liowever, the soldiers advance in a constant 

 stream, along Avith the workers. 



Mr. E. C. Smith, manager of the Garden Island Honey 

 Company, of Ilonolnhi, tells me that with their 5,000 colonies,,. 

 located on the various islands, they experience by far the 

 greatest difficulty from these ants on the Island of Hawaii; 

 for most of their apiaries are there located in very humid 

 V districts. He says tliat, even here on Oahu, at least twenty- 

 five per cent of the colonies are destroyed during each rainy 

 season, unless protected. It is his experience that no colony, 

 no matter how strong, can withstand these predators, for 

 more than a few days, if once set-upon. 



It is fortunate for the apiarist that the ants are omnivorous 

 111 rheir diet, and that they feed upon bees during so short a 

 season; for even though a successful method of keeping them 

 out of the hives has been devised, the expense for the lal)o.' 

 item of carrying on the combat throughout the year would 

 be prohibitive. 



Since these ants show a decided preference for an insect 

 diet, their activities may lead them to attack other introduced 

 beneficial insects. Fortunately, many of these, for exain])l(> 

 the hymen()])terous ])arasites, appear to be more or_less imiiun 

 but, as I have recorded (1914-) the breeding of dii)t!'r()i 

 parasites, in Fiji, was greatly hampered by mcgarcphala. 



>Vp])ai'ently this is a further case of the eff(>cts of dimar 

 upon the activities of this ant. Fiji, being nearer tlie (Mpiatov. 

 is warmer than Hawaii, and megarephala is much more abun- 

 dant, at least, in the cane districts. As far as we were able 

 to observe, none of the thousands c^f flics that we libeiated 

 during the first nine iiKmths were able to establish themselves. 

 This was probal)ly due to the fact that the work was st:<;'t(^d 

 at the beginning of tlie dry season, at a time wlieii tlie ants 

 were exceedingly abundant. Tbc l)reeding cages were moved, 

 however, to a new district, during the following wet season, 

 and in scarcely three months after tlie liberation (Fel)ruary, 

 1914) of 320 flies, they were found breeding in the field, and 

 three months later, at cutting time, they were found 1o be so 

 well estal)]ished that the fly ])ui)aria could be fonnd in almost 



