RELATIONS WITH OTHER ARTHROPODA. 71 



furnished to the ants m our artificial formicaries the wings were 

 quickly amputated, although the termite itself was not always carried 

 into the formicary, possibly because, in such cases, the ants were 

 already bountifully supplied with animal food. 



The Rev. Albert Biever, of New Orleans, whose observations on 

 the Argentine ant are elsewhere mentioned, is authority for the 

 statement that these ants have in many cases entirely exterminated 

 the bedbugs in the liouses of many of the poorer people in New 

 Orleans. 



Father Biever also states that in some sections of the city the 

 "red bug," or chigger, has entirely disappeared with the advent of 

 the ants. The junior author's observations in Audubon Park, New 

 Orleans, are of similar nature, the chiggers being entirely absent 

 where once they were a plague. At the same time the senior author 

 ctill retains some very unpleasant memories of daily attacks by 

 chiggers on premises in Baton Rouge which were heavily infested 

 by the ants. We are thus unable, as yet, to state with certainty 

 that the ants always destroy these annoying pests. 



The attitude of the Argentine ant toward other species of ants has 

 already been discussed and its action in destroying other ants takes 

 on either a beneficial or injurious aspect according to whether the 

 annihilated ant is itself one of beneficial or injurious nature. 



SYMBIOTIC RELATIONS. 



The relationsliips which exist between the Argentine ant and those 

 insects or other creatures which it tolerates in its nests or in the 

 near vicinity can not be considered as symbiosis, yet mention of these 

 may be permissible at this point. Despite the hostility which these 

 ants exhibit toward most insects which are not directly of service 

 to them, a few instances have been noted in wliich other insects and 

 crustaceans were permitted to live in close proxhnity to their nests, 

 or even within the nests themselves. 



Certain staphyUnid beetles have frequently been found in decayed 

 logs which were full of Argentine ants. Eiforts have been made to 

 keep some of these beetles in the artificial formicaries along with 

 colonies of the ant under observation, but the results have been 

 variable. In expermients of this kind made by the junior author 

 the beetles were invariably set upon by the ants in the formicary 

 and either kiUed or driven out. In similar experiments by the 

 senior author no apparent attention was paid to the beetles, so far 

 as could be observed, and they were tolerated in the formicary for a 

 week or longer, after which they evidently left of their own accord. 



On August 17, 1909, a large ant nest was discovered in Baton 

 Rouge under a large dry-goods box. About 20 specimens of "spittle 



