D0 
falls made by many ants would be a serious inconvenience in the cul- 
tivation of the crop. To avoid them would be difficult, and to drive 
over or plow through them would mean the wholesale destruction 
of the insects, so that the utilization in agriculture of a true ant-hill 
ant might well be deemed improbable. The social organization of 
the kelep avoids all of these difficulties. The colonies are small, 
but not hostile, so that all the plants of the field can be visited. In- 
stead of an ant-hill and a maze of underground passages, they have 
a simple burrow, deep enough to give them protection against injuries 
incidental to ordinary cultivation. If the entrance is accidentally 
closed the inhabitants can readily reopen it; and if the situation 
proves to be inconvenient the whole community generally has the 
intelligence to move over close to the cotton plants, on which it regu- 
larly forages for nectar and game. 
SUMMARY. 
In summarizing the former report, of July, 1904, the investigation 
of the kelep was divided. into five phases or questions, upon three of 
which evidence was submitted, while two others remained uncon- 
sidered. The three facts which seemed to be established were: 
(1) The kelep protects the cotton plant against the boll weevil, 
which it regularly kills and eats. In the presence of sufficient num- 
bers of keleps the protection is entirely adequate, as shown by com- 
parative field tests in Guatemala. The keleps have made it possible 
for the Indians to maintain a field culture of cotton in the presence 
of the weevil, and have thus enabled the Indian variety of cotton to 
develop weevil-resisting characters which give partial protection, 
even in places where the keleps are few or wanting. 
(2) The kelep does not attack plants, or have any other habits 
which would make its introduction into ‘the United States injurious 
or undesirable. 
(3) It is feasible to bring colonies of the insects to Texas and estab- 
lish them in the cotton fields. 
The continued study of the insect has furnished, of course, many 
additional data bearing upon the above statements. but all have been 
of a confirmatory nature. The present paper deals with the further 
question, whether the habits of the insect will enable it to breed and 
multiply in captivity or as a domesticated inhabitant of the cotton 
fields of our Southern States. From the analogy of the habits of the 
ants, it appeared to specialists in the study of that group of insects 
that the kelep could not be appled to agricultural uses. The facts 
detailed in the present paper seem to warrant a different answer. 
(4) The kelep is not a true ant, but has a distinct type of social 
organization, much more lke that of the domestic honeybee. 
