8 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 740. 
species of the same name, is dark brown or black in color, and is 
the largest of the house-frequenting ants, the workers varying from 
one-fourth to one-half inch in length and the winged female attain- 
ing a length of nearly an inch. It normally constructs its galleries 
in logs and dead trees in forests, but not infrequently, in the case of 
wooden houses, and especially those in or near forested tracts, gains 
access through porch beams or the underpinning of such houses and 
mines and weakens the supporting timbers and other woodwork. As 
a rule it affects only the decaying portions of the wood, but some- 
times carries its channels into the sound wood. Many instances of 
damage of this sort have been reported, possibly some of them, 
Fic. 5.—The carpenter ant (Camponotus herculeanus pennsylvanicus) : a, Winged female ; 
b, worker major; ¢, worker minor. All enlarged to same scale. (Original.) 
however, due to confusion of the work of this ant with that of the 
common termite or so-called white ant.* 
GARDEN AND LAWN ANTS AS HOUSE PESTS. 
Almost any of the common garden or lawn ants which build their 
little crater nests in lawns or in soil about houses may become tem- 
porarily or on occasion house pests in their search for food sub- 
stances. Four native ants and one introduced species have achieved 
notoriety in this way.? One of these, referred to in earlier cireu- 
lars issued by this department on house ants as the little black ant* 
1 Leucotermes flavipes Kollar. 
2 Monomorium minimum Buckley, Lasius niger L. var. americanus Emery, Prenolepis 
imparis Say, and Formica fusca L. var. subsericea Say. 
3 Monomorium minimum Buckley. 
