EELATIONS WITH OTHER ARTHKOPODA. 61 



ently liquid food is consunied soon after being brought into the for- 

 micary, as evidenced by the following observation: 



Some fresh honey was placed upon the food table of an artificial 

 formicary, and when the first worker was observed to leave the honey 

 the top of the formicary was removed and her actions observed. 

 Upon entering the colony she was met by three other workers, all 

 of which placeti their mandibles to hers. As she regurgitated the 

 liquid they sipped it up. When one of these workers had received a 

 sufficient quantity she retired and another took her place, as many 

 as four or five workers sometimes feeding at once. The foraging 

 worker in this manner supplied about 15 others with food, after 

 which, her supply being apparently exhausted, she left the group of 

 assembled feeders and went her way, leaving some of them hungry 

 and still unsatisfied. 



RELATIONS WITH OTHER ARTHROPODA. 

 FORMICID^. 



It may be said in general that the Argentine ant will not tolerate 

 the presence of other species of ants within its domains. There are 

 a few exceptions to this rule. In 1908 Mr. G. A. Runner and the 

 junior author found a small colony of Monomorium minimu7n Buck- 

 ley living in the same tree stump with a colony of Argentine ants at 

 Baton Rouge. The Monomorium colony possessed a number of young 

 stages and appeared to be unmolested by the Argentine ants. The 

 following season, however, the Argentine ants were in full possession 

 of the stump, and no trace of Monomorium could be found. During 

 the same summer another small colony of M. minimum was noticed 

 living in a fig tree in territory heavily infested with the Argentine 

 ant. This was also at Baton Rouge. This colony was observed for 

 several weeks, but finally died out, though it could not be determined 

 whether the Argentine ants were resi)onsible for its annihilation. 



In another case a log was split open, disclosing vigorous colonies 

 of both Iridomyrmex humilis and M. minimum. Whether the ants 

 were occup^dng the same chambers or whether the nests were in 

 close but disconnected chambers could not be ascertained, but the 

 Monomorium workers were seen to pick up and carry away the larvas 

 of JiumUis with as much solicitude as they did their own. Just what 

 relationship obtains between these two species we have not been 

 able to determine, but certain it is that JiumiUs tolerates this small 

 species to a much greater extent than it does any other ant. At 

 Baton Rouge Monomorium minimum still seems to maintain its 

 normal abundance, and this certainly can not be said of any other 

 species of ant. 



