8 Cincinyiati Society of Natural History. 



looking fellows, of a rich orange-olive color, with heads and 

 the three posterior segments dark green. When disturbed, 

 they bite savagely. They sometimes come into one's tent 

 and crawl under the blankets and are very disagreeable 

 bedfellows. The ants of Arizona, like those of Texas and 

 New Mexico, are a conspicuous feature of the insect fauna. 

 The different species and modifications are legion. The 

 Agricultural Ant (Pogonomyrmex) clears away all vegetation, 

 sometimes for a space thirty feet in diameter around the 

 entrance to its nest. Some very interesting beetles live in 

 the nests of these ants. But, as the ant stings severely, one 

 must not let them touch the skin, for the instant they do, 

 they sting. One that got up my trouser's leg stung me four 

 times in as many seconds. He who digs for Myrmecophilus 

 coleoptera in their nests will have his troubles. In the early 

 Spring and late Fall, the ants are not nearly so aggressive. 

 Mr. McCleary, a ranchman, kills them when they come near 

 his house by placing lumps of fused cyanide at the entrance 

 to their nests, this he moistens with water from time to time. 

 Every ant that touches this cyanide is killed, and they can 

 not go in or out without touching it. He has tried pouring 

 liquid cyanide and bi-sulph. carbon into the nests with only 

 partial success. I saw heaps of dead ants he had killed at 

 the nests he had treated, and not a living ant was to be seen. 

 Some beetles had also been killed by touching this deadly 

 cyanide. This ant is a pest of such great importance in 

 some situations that they must be gotten rid of at any cost. 

 Its sting is most peculiar and painful, and is most quickly 

 relieved by using ammonia on the affected parts. The 

 aggregate area of grass lands denuded and destroyed by 

 these ants in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas must be very 

 great. Another curious ant is a black species of Pheodole 

 that lives under stones. Some of them have enormously 

 developed heads and nutcrackerlike jaws. They are said 

 to be the seed crackers of the colony. This species does 

 not sting and is harmless and inoffensive. 



