68 THE ARGENTINE ANT. 



they emerged and were summarily disposed of in the same manner 

 as were the Pohstes. Invariably the flies were seized before enough 

 time had elapsed for their wings to expand and dry, and only a very 

 small percentage of them escaped the ants. 



Cockroaches are esteemed a great delicacy by these ants, and while 

 the workers are not able to capture uninjured roaches, they attack 

 in great numbers any roach so unlucky as to be injured. Dead cock- 

 roaches are also eagerly visited by the ants and all soft parts removed. 

 It seems almost retribution that one of the few natural enemies of the 

 Argentine ant should itself be a larval cockroach (Thyrsocera cincta 

 Burm.), mention of which is made on a following page. 



THE ARGENTINE ANT AND THE BOLL WEEVIL. 



Prior to the advent of the boll weevil in the territory infested by the 

 Argentine ant there was considerable speculation as to whether so 

 combative an ant might not prove to be an insect of some value in 

 protecting the cotton crop against weevil ravages. Any hopes of this 

 kind which were entertained have not thus far been realized. In one 

 rather unimportant respect the ants seem to annoy the boll weevils. 

 At Baton Eouge the Louisiana Experiment Station had a few small plats 

 of cotton, aggregating less than an acre, within the city limits and in a 

 section where the Argentme ants were exceedmgly abundant. The 

 plats were bordered on one side by the Louisiana State University 

 campus, with its large oak trees sheltering hundreds of ant colonies, 

 and on the other side by the batture of the INIississippi River, wliich 

 was likewise a seething mass of ant colonies. The gi'ound in the cotton 

 plats was therefore heavily infested by the ants, and when this field 

 also became infested by the boll weevil the outcome was watched with 

 considerable interest. During September, 1909, it was found that 

 the ants, in their steady patrol of the plants while attending cotton 

 lice, worried the adult boll weevils considerably. Wlienever an ant 

 encountered a boll weevil it would nip the legs of the latter, usually 

 causing the weevil to fly to another plant or drop to the ground. In 

 no case were the ants found killing fully matured weevils, tliough in a 

 few instances they did attack and kill uiihardened weevils which had 

 just issued from infested squares. The great abundance of ants in 

 these plats evidently resulted in many of tlie weevils being driven ofl", 

 for something of a top crop was produced in the fall of 1909. It is 

 worthy of note in this connection that the heavy ant infestation 

 obtaining in these plats will not bo duplicated in large cotton fields 

 for many years to come, if, indeed, such will ever be the case. Condi- 

 tions in large cotton areas are not such as to attract the Argentine ant 

 in numbers. It was also of interest to note that the presence of the 

 ants in these particular plats resulted in an abnormally heavy infesta- 



