23S 



PSYCHE. 



[August, 1901 



On lifting up a stone at Black Moun- 

 tain I saw a brown ant withdraw itself 

 into a gallery. The magnifier enabled 

 me at once to recognize Atta {Trachy- 

 mynncx) tardigrada Buckley ! The 

 mushroom garden of this single north- 

 ern species of the group being still en- 

 tirely unknown, I set myself in quest of 

 it. The workers issued first in rather 

 large numbers to defend themselves, es- 

 pecially when I placed before them 

 some Crcmastogaster. Soon I saw come 

 up from the bottom of the nest some 

 workers carrying little gray balls with 

 which they obstructed the opening. I 

 judged that these were from the mush- 

 room garden and proved it by taking 

 one of them in my forceps. Did they 

 seek in this manner to repel the Cre- 

 mastogaster by the odor of the mush- 

 room ? Did they wish to prepare for 

 flight ? I do not know. Some of them 

 strangled several of the Cremastogasto- 

 with their mandibles. Finally I decided 

 to open the nest to the bottom. It was 

 not deep. It consisted of a large cham- 

 ber the size of an egg and was filled 

 with a mushroom garden which enclosed 

 the pupae, several females, etc. 



This nest recalled one made by some 

 captive Attix {Acroiiiyrmex) ociospinosa in 

 the earth under a saucer. It contained 

 about two hundred workers. I placed a 

 part of the mushroom garden in alcohol 

 and tried in vain to make the mycelium 

 of the rest grow in a damp vial. I shall 

 send it to Prof. Moeller. McCook has 

 claimed that A. tardigrada cuts off the 

 needles of pines and firs. There were 



none of these trees in the vicinity of the 

 nest. As Trachymynnex makes a mush- 

 room garden simpler than the other Atta 

 and as their fungus is not Rhozites, I 

 suspect that tardigrada employs other 

 material (detritus, larval excrements, 

 etc.) like the other species of the sub- 

 genus which I observed in Colombia. 



The Crcmastogaster lineoiata, as/iweadii 

 etc., of North America live, especially 

 the latter, by preference in rotten trunks 

 or ni branches fallen to the ground in 

 the forests. In these they make large 

 formicaries. They are found under 

 stones also, especially liiieolata. They 

 do not use dry, hard trees like scutcllaris 

 of Europe, so that their nests are easy 

 to demolish. However, their habits are 

 uninteresting, like those of nearly all 

 Crcmastogastcrs. 



The species of Phcidolc are numerous 

 and live under bark or in the earth in 

 excavated nests with small crater- like 

 openings. At Black Mountain a species 

 makes large, almost dome-like nests 

 which are very populous. Here at Fai- 

 sons I have found several species of 

 them under bark. At Morganton I 

 witnessed the marriage-flights of the 

 males and females which appeared in 

 swarms in the early evening in front of 

 the Asylum. 



Moiwmorium ebeniniim is very common 

 and lives here, as in the Antilles, in dry 

 branches, very often in those fallen to 

 the ground in the forests. I witnessed 

 a removal. ' 



Various species of Soknaspis live in 

 double nests as in France and elsewhere 



