S7^ Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXI, 



containing fat. It is said not to eat sugar. These facts show that 

 Forel's assertion that Say must have redescribed Monomorium 

 pharaonis as Myrmica molesta instead of the species afterwards de- 

 scribed by Mayr under the name of Solenopsis debilis is without 

 foundation. 



Still other aspects of this versatile little ant have been described 

 by Prof. S. A. Forbes. I quote from his Seventh Illinois Report^: 

 "It [Solenopsis molesta] was first found by us June 1-12, 1883, at 

 Normal, Illinois, abundant in many fields of corn, both new and old, 

 and afterwards. May 14-24, 1886, infesting seed corn in the fields at 

 Champaign. In the corn field these ants were usually collected about 

 the kernels in the earth, and frequently more or less hidden in little 

 cavities in the softened grain. May 19, 1887, they were very abun- 

 dant in a field of corn in sod in Champaign County, eating out the 

 planted kernels. In autumn the same species has been detected by 

 us indulging a similar appetite but in a way to do no harm. Sept. 

 1 1-2 1, 1893, it was found on and within kernels of corn at the tips 

 of ears, which had evidently been injured previously by crickets 

 and grasshoppers. The solid substance of the grains is not actually 

 eaten by these ants, a fact which I demonstrated by dissection of 

 the ants, but it is simply gnawed away, doubtless for the sake of the 

 sweetish and oily fluids of the softened kernels. If plants start from 

 seed thus injured, they are shorter than others adjacent, and have a 

 stunted weak appearance. 



"This species has also been several times noticed by us in Septem- 

 ber in attendance upon the root-louse of corn. Aphis maidiradicis, 

 sharing with two other species of ants the cares and benefits of this 

 association. It occurs more frequently, according to our observations, 

 at this season of the year, with the corn-root lice infesting purslane 

 than with those upon the corn itself." 



Prof. Forbes's figure and description leave no doubt that the ant 

 he observed was 5. molesta ( = debilis Mayr). He calls attention in a 

 previous report to its eating strawberries. This and its corn-eating 

 habits show its relations to the carnivorous and granivorous "fire 

 ant," 5. geminata, which I have seen eating strawberries and carrying 

 away their seeds on Mr. Kleber's ranch at Corpus Christi, Texas. 



Cremastogaster Lund. 



12. C. lineolata Say. — Common throughout the State, according 

 to Smith's list. I have seen fine colonies in such widely different 



* A Monograph of the Insects Injurious to Indian Corn, 1894. 



