Occasional Papers of Ihe Museum of Zoology 19 



the helpless insects. The fishermen reported that at this time 

 their boats swarmed with these ants which alighted upon them 

 several miles from shore. 



A little before dark on the evening of the twentieth, a col- 

 ony in a crater nest in the dry sand near the lighthouse was 

 noticed to be in great agitation. A number of workers were 

 hurrying about the surface of the ground and in and out of 

 the single entrance to the nest. Just as it was becoming too 

 dark to see, winged males began appearing in twos and threes 

 until in a few minutes the entrance was filled with a swarm of 

 aleate males and workers. The latter seemed to be driving 

 out the former, which were very weak, hardly being able to 

 surmount the sides of the crater and after doing so straggling 

 ofif to any nearby cover without attempting flight. The rapid 

 increase of darkness prevented any further observations that 

 night and in the morning the colony presented a normal appear- 

 ance, and no winged ants were in the vicinity. At the time of 

 the excitement of the previous evening the surrounding colo- 

 nies (and there were probably fifty in a thirty foot circle), 

 were abnormally quiet, appearing almost deserted. This fact 

 makes it seem probable that all were offshoots of the same 

 parent nest and were so closely associated that the males made 

 their exit by the same passages. 



The species was one of the tw^o most common forms on 

 the island, as might be expected. This is easily accounted for 

 by the great flights of the sexual phases and the distances they 

 cover. It was nearly universal in its distribution in the island 

 habitats, though most characteristic of the drier open forests 

 and beach edges. 



13. Lasiiis flaz'us L. subsp. nearctlciis Wheeler. — This 

 species was first noted on September 17, when a small colony 

 was found in the drv hardwood forest near the north shore. 



