HISTOEY AND DISTRIBUTION. 13 



present in ''fair numbers." At that date it was very scarce in 

 Audubon Park and below Canal Street, but was present in considerable 

 numbers between Magazine Street and the river. 



''Five or six years later" he found it in St. Peters Avenue, near 

 St. Charles, but it was not abundant. This is about 40 squares 

 north and west from the point on St. Charles Avenue first referred to 

 by Mr. Foster. 



In a personal letter to the senior author, Mr Foster writes as 

 follows : 



I have known the species since 1891. At that time it was a rarity iii Audubon Park, 

 but was very common in the section immediately above Canal Street. Below Canal 

 Street it was not at all plentiful. The boundary of the nuisance then was virtually 

 from ^Nfagazine Street to the river. The coffee ships from Brazil, I understand, have 

 always landed about where the wharves are now situated (on the river front, adjoining 

 the area above mentioned), but from what we know of the spread of insect nuisances 

 the first batch of immigrants must have come in years before I came across their 

 descendants. 



Mr. E, S. G. Titus, ^ quoting IMr. E. Baker, former superintendent of 

 Audubon Park, states that in 1896 "they extended over but a small 

 area, reaching approximately from Southport docks to Carrollton 

 Avenue and from the river bank to Poplar Street," and that "in 1899 

 they were first noticed in Audubon Park." This area, from Southport 

 to Carrollton Avenue, is located about 5 or 6 miles northwest of the 

 area between IMagazine Street and the river, noted by Foster to be 

 well infested as early as 1891. Mr. Baker, therefore, had not been 

 familiar with the original area of heavy infestation, but merely noted 

 the species after it had invaded the part of the town where he resided. 

 Mr. Titus's information that the species was first noted in Audubon 

 Park in 1899 was of course secured from citizens, who failed to note 

 the ant until it had reached prodigious numbers in the same place 

 that Foster had found it a "rarity" in 1891. The dissemination to 

 Audubon Park was undoubtedly from the heavily infested area 

 between ]\Iagazine Street and the wharves already referred to. 



The distribution of the species in 1904, as given by IVIr. Titus,^ was 

 as follows : 



Across the river in Algiers and adjoining small settlements; at West End, Spanish 

 Fort, and Milneburg, summer resorts on Lake Ponchartram; Bay St. Louis, ]\Iiss., a 

 summer resort between New Orleans and Mobile; along the Texas & Pacific Rail- 

 road at Donaldsonville, Cheneyville, and Alexandria; along the Southern Pacific at 

 Thibodeaux, Scln-iever, Houma, Berwick, Morgan City, Franklin, New Iberia, and 

 La Fayette, and at Opelousas. 



There is every reason for supposmg that this ant was introduced 

 into New Orleans by means of the cofl'ee ships which have for years 



1 Bui. 52, Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr., p. 79, 1905. 2 ibid.^ p. §2. 



