59- 57. 96 (74-9) 



Article XXIII. — AN ANNOTATED LIST OF THE ANTS OF NEW 



JERSEY. 



By William Mortox Wheeler. 



No State in the Union has been so thoroughly ransacked by col- 

 lectors of insects as New Jersey. Owing to its geographical position 

 and the diversity of its physical conditions, it has been for years the 

 natural collecting ground for the members of flourishing entomologi- 

 cal societies in New York, Brooklyn, Newark, and Philadelphia. And 

 while local collectors, since the time of Rev. G. K. Morris and Mrs. 

 Mary Treat, seem to have given little serious stud}^ to the ants, they 

 have nevertheless collected specimens in a more or less desultory 

 manner. Frequently when other more attractive insects are not to be 

 taken, the entomologist, rather than return home empty-handed, will 

 capture a few of the ants which are always to be had in abundance. 

 These specimens accumulate in collections and, when sufficiently 

 numerous and provided with accurate locality labels, eventually 

 come to be of great service in faunistic studies like the one here 

 attempted. I have examined such collections in the possession of 

 Messrs. E. Daecke, Wm. T. Davis, H. L. Viereck, and Prof. John B, 

 Smith, and I wish to express my obligations both to these gentlemen 

 and to Dr. Henry Skinner, through whose kindness I have been able 

 to study specimens in the collections of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences. All of this material, together with such specimens 

 as I have myself been able to collect on several excursions during the 

 past two years, enables me to record a considerable number of differ- 

 ent forms from New Jersey. 



This is by no means the first list of New Jersey ants to be pub- 

 lished. In his ' Catalogue of Insects found in New Jersey,' * Prof. 

 J. B. Smith records 66 species from the State. This Hst, however, 

 includes the names, apparently derived from incorrectly identified 

 specimens, of a number of European and tropical American ants. 

 When we eliminate these, together with some synonyms and apocry- 

 phal names, about 44 legitimate entries remain. For the second 

 edition of this work, entitled ' Insects of New Jersey,' 2 the list of ants 

 was revised and extended by Dr. Wm. H. Ashmead till it comprised 



• From the Final Report of the State Geologist of New Jersey. Vol. II, 1890. 



* Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the State Board of Agriculture, 1899. Trenton, N. J. , 

 1900. 



[371] 



SP-^OS 



