84 Psyche [June 
the salt spray during stormy weather. A few days later I discov- 
ered a much larger area, comprising a narrow strip about a quarter 
of a mile in length and forming the border of a salt meadow 
between Salt Pond and the beach at Ellisville. Here there are 
dozens of infested colonies which have a very definite and interest- 
ing distribution. On the beach itself, which consists of a deep layer 
of pure sand, there are colonies of Formica fusca var. argentata 
Wheeler, Wyrmica scabrinodis Nyl. var. sabuleti Meinert, Tapinoma 
sessile Say and Lasius neoniger. The last is far and away the 
most abundant and its workers are of large size. None of the ants 
in this locality, including the neoniger, was found to be infested 
with Laboulbeniacee. On the border of the salt meadow, however, 
immediately adjoining the beach, where the soil is moist, consist- 
ing of a mixture of rather sour, decomposing humus mixed with 
sand, and probably not infrequently wetted by the spray and oc- 
casionally even submerged at very high water, the only ant is L. 
neoniger, but its colonies are less populous than those on the beach, 
the workers are distinctly smaller and are practically all infested 
with the Laboulbenia. Passing over from this zone of infestation 
to the pasture land adjoining the salt meadow, the variety neoniger 
is replaced by L. niger L. var americanus Emery which is the form 
of the species commonly occurring in higher and dryer pastures and 
fields. None of the workers of this form, which lacks on the 
scapes and legs the erect hairs so conspicuous in the var. neoniger, 
was found to be infested with the fungus. It would seem, therefore, 
that while neoniger, unlike any of the other ants, is able to exist 
in a depauperate condition in the damp, sour soil at the edges of 
salt meadows, it does so only at the risk of becoming infested with 
Laboulbenia formicarum. Indeed, the infestation of the ants in this 
strip of littoral at Ellisville is often so excessive that they resemble 
hedgehogs, fairly bristling with tufts of the fungus. 
According to Thaxter, both Rickia wasmanni and Laboulbenia 
formicarum grow on all parts of their hosts, but this statement 
requires some qualification, at least in the case of the latter species. 
An examination of several hundred specimens of L. neoniger shows 
that the Laboulbenia grows most abundantly on the abdomen, mid- 
dle and hind femora and tibie and posterior portions of the head. 
The thorax and coxe, as a rule, are entirely free from the fungus; 
