236 



PSYCHE. 



[August, 1901 



abdomen, moving slowly in the midst 

 of the workers. Its thorax is narrow 

 and somewhat rectangular. The pedicel 

 has only one joint, very similar to 

 that of Labidiis! The characters are 

 thus intermediate between the male and 

 the workers. A leap for joy at this dis- 

 covery. 



About fourteen niillimetevs long at a guess. 

 Mandibles sublinear, with parallel edges, 

 without teeth, pointed at tlie end, slightly 

 curved. Maxillary palpi two-jointed. La- 

 brum emarginate. Scape short, strongly 

 thickened in the second half. Segments of 

 the funiculus longer than wide. Head 

 rotundo-quadrate, with a wide longitudinal 

 furrow from epistoma to occiput. Thorax 

 narrow and elongate, especially the prono- 

 tum and mesonotum. Pro-mesonotal suture 

 obsolete. Mesonotum oval, subdepressed. 

 No scutellum or intermediate segment. 

 Meso-metanotal suture distinct, concave in 

 front. Metanotum wider than long, depress- 

 ed, with a wide median impression on the 

 basal face and two strongly rounded protub- 

 erances on each side. Basal face longer 

 than the declivent face. Pedicel compressed 

 from e«cli side, wider than long, wider before 

 than behind, with a superior face and two 

 lateral borders. Its posterior edge is widely 

 and deeply emarginate, forming thus on 

 each side a broad obtuse tooth directed back- 

 ward (form of Lahidus). A broad, obtuse 

 tooth beneath, in front. 



The abdomen alone, both distended and 

 elongate (the entire female is strongly elon- 

 gate) is about nine mm. long. The pygidium 

 and hypop3'gium form two wide, elongate 

 disks, the first convex, the second rather flat 

 and passing the first. 



Eyes absent. Legs rather long, permitting 

 locomotion. Tibiae and femora scarcely 

 sub-depressed. The whole insect shining, 

 finely punctate, except the thorax and the 



pedicel which are plentifully and more 

 coarsely punctuated. Pile erect, fine, yellow- 

 ish, abundant, pointed, generally distributed. 

 Reddish. Legs and antennae a dirty yellow. 



I placed a part of the nest in a bag in 

 order to observe these interesting ants, 

 and I have not yet finished studying 

 them. Unfortunately there were in the 

 nest only pupae and larvae of workers. 

 I found a myrmecophile in it. The 

 following observations seem to me im- 

 portant to record : The Ecitons carry 

 their larvae and pupae, which are very 

 elongate, by placing themselves astride 

 over them with their six legs, like 

 Polyergus but in a more accentuated 

 fashion. Even the little workers carry 

 the large pupae in this way, touching 

 the ground only with the ends of the 

 tarsi. But by so doing they travel very 

 fast and have the antennae free. In 

 the second place, their instinctive faculty 

 of concerted action and of forming in 

 line quite excels everything I have seen 

 among other ants. Throw a handful 

 of Ecitons with their larvae down upon 

 strange ground. Under similar circum- 

 stances, where other ants scatter them- 

 selves about in confusion and require 

 an hour or more (sometimes less) to 

 arrive at any kind of order, to gather 

 their pupae and especially to examine 

 their surroundings, the Ecitons co- 

 operate without losing a single instant. 

 In five minutes they have formed distinct 

 files of workers which do not wander 

 from each other, carrying in part the 

 larvae and pupae and traveling in a 

 somewhat direct line, touching the 



