70 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FORESTS. 
ASSOCIATION WITH ANTS. 
Grassi ® and Escherich ° have given interesting accounts of the rela- 
tions between termites and ants. S. A. Forbes ¢ states that flavipes 
has been found associated with Formica schaufussi Mayr. H. C. 
McCook? states that flavipes occurring under stones in the neighbor- 
hood of the Alleghenies were seized and carried off by the mound build- 
ing ants (Formica exsectoides Forel) when disturbed. J. C. Branner ¢ 
refers to the common ants as being enemies of the termites. King / 
has noted the association of termites with ants. The following brief 
notes have been made while investigating damage by termites to trees 
and forest products: 
Termites and ants are commonly to be found inhabiting the same 
log or stump, yet ants are the enemies most to be feared by termites, 
as they will capture and carry away the members of a disorganized 
colony. Ordinarily the relations between termites and ants seem 
to be neighborly and peaceful. If the termite colony is opened 
up and disorganized, the ants at once take advantage of the oppor- 
tunity and carry away the termites, which offer but little resistance. 
Ants of several species may be attracted to such a helpless colony 
from a distance. The soft-bodied soldiers are apparently not very 
effective in such emergencies, although in the narrow channels of 
the colony, where the powerful head with open mandibles is the only 
front presented to the marauding ants, they afford some protection 
to the colony. 
Two species of carpenter ants (Camponotus pennsylvanicus Mayr 
and Cremastogaster lineolata Say?) are the ants which more com- 
monly have been found associated with termites in the eastern 
United States. The latter species, due to its small size and rapidity 
of movement, is a most formidable enemy. 
Ants greatly diminish the number of the colonizing individuals at 
the time of the swarm, carrying them away as they are running 
about on the ground. Soldiers and workers guard the breaches from 
which the sexed adults have emerged, possibly to keep the greedy 
ants from following their prey to the parent nest. 


a Grassi, B., and Sandias, A. Op. cit., p. 282-283. 
b Escherich, K. Die Termiten oder weissen Ameisen. Eine biologische Studie, 
p. 122-126, Leipzig, 1909. f 
¢ Forbes, 8. A. Nineteenth Report of the State Entomologist on the Noxious and 
Beneficial Insects of the State of Illinois, p. 198, Springfield, I]]., 1895. The white 
ant in Illinois ( Termes flavipes, Kollar), p. 190-204. 
@ McCook, H. C. Note on mound-making ants. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. for 
1879, p. 154-156, August 12, 1879. 
e Branner, J. C. Geologic work of ants in tropical America. Bul. Geol. Soc. 
Amer., v. 21, p. 449-496, figs. 11, pl. 35, August 20, 1910. See p. 478-479. 
Ff Loc. cit. 
9 Ident». 2d by Mr. Theodore Pergande, of the Bureau of Entomology. 
