326 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol. VIII, 
namely, Gicophylla, Camponotus and Polyrhachis, which have the 
extraordinary habit of using their larvae for the purpose of 
spinning silken nests for the colony. This habit has been 
observed by Ridley (1890, 1894), Hammond (Green 1900), 
Green (1900, 1903), Doflein (1905, 1906) and Bugnion (1909) 
in the red tree-ant of India (Gicophylla smaragdina), by Saville- 
Kent (1891, 1897), Dodd (1902), O’Brien (1910) and myself 
in the green tree-ant of Northeastern Australia (CE. smaragdina 
var. virescens), and by Chun (1903) in C&. longinodis of the 
Kamerun. More recently Goeldi (Forel 1905) has observed 
this habit in a South American Camponotus (C. [Myrmobrachys| 
senex F. Smith) and Jacobson (Forel 1911, Wasmann 1905) and 
Karawaiew (1906) have observed the same behavior in several 
species of Polyrhachis. Green (1903) found that although the 
larval C2. smaragdina is employed as a shuttle in spinning the 
silken portions of the nest, it does not spin a cocoon for itself, 
but forms anaked pupa. Hesays: ‘‘ This seems to be explica- 
ble only on the theory that the silk that would normally be em- 
ployed in the construction of the cocoon is systematically con- 
verted to the purpose of nest building, and that the larve have 
consequently lost the habit of cocoon formation.”’ This was a 
natural view to take, especially as Green (1900) believed that 
only full grown larvee were used in spinning the nest. The 
conditions, however, are more complicated than they appeared 
to Green, since later observers have shown that Ccophylla 
uses only its very young larvee in nidification, and that cocoons 
are actually formed by the larve of many of the nest-spinning 
species of Polyrhachis. As I have lately had an opportunity 
to study the nest-spinning habits of G#. virescens in Australia 
and am able to record a few new facts concerning an Australian 
Polyrhachis and a Central American Camponotus not hitherto 
known to produce silken nests, I take this occasion to transcribe 
a few observations from my note-books. 
I find the earliest mention of the green tree ant in Capt. 
Cook’s narrative of his first voyage. He landed May 23, 1770, 
somewhere in the neighborhood of the present Townsville, on 
the coast of Northern Queensland, ‘‘ within the point of a bay, 
which led into a large lagoon, by the sides of which grows the 
true mangrove. There,’’ he says, ‘““were many nests OL sa 
singular kind of ant, as green as grass, in the branches of these 
