Bulletin Amencan Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXII, 



dead wood, or under bark, boards, etc. The workers of all of our 

 forms have the same habit of climbing trees and plants in straggling 

 files and of attending aphides and coccids. The excrement of these 

 animals, popularly known as "honey dew," certainly constitutes a 

 large portion of their food. All of our forms have a rank, inde- 

 scribable odor. When in large colonies, they are often very cour- 

 ageous and sting and bite with great fury. Small colonies, however, 

 or small groups of foraging workers are very timid and when dis- 

 turbed take refuge in crevices in the 

 bark or depressions in the soil. Like 

 the other members of the genus, lineo- 

 lata workers are able while walking or 

 running to throw up and turn forward 

 the tip of the gaster, so that its flat- 

 tened dorsal surface becomes ventral 

 and its convex ventral surface be- 

 comes dorsal in position. (Figs, i 

 and 2.) This peculiar position, how- 

 ever, is not so readily or frequently 

 assumed as in some of the tropical 

 American species, like C. minuta and 

 C. askmeadi. 



Among the habits of C. lineolata 

 there is one that is as striking in its 

 manifestation as it is obscure in its 

 phylogenetic origin, — the habit of 

 constructing, often at some distance 

 from the ground or the nest, small 

 enclosures, variously designated as 

 'tents,' 'pavilions' or 'cowsheds' over colonies of aphides or coccids. 

 These structures, which consist of agglutinated earth or vegetable 

 detritus, have been described by several observers, though they have 

 neither been adequately figured nor satisfactorily explained. Such 

 tents are erected by other ants, but those of C. lineolata seem to 

 show greater perfection of workmanship and a higher degree of 

 adaptation to special conditions. 



One of the earliest accounts of these structures among our Amer- 

 ican ants was pubHshed by Baron Osten Sacken in 1862.1 His 



Cremastogaster lineolata Say. 



* Entomologische Notizen. VII. Stallfutternde Ameisen. Stett Entomol. Zeitg., 23 Jahrg. 

 l86a, pp. 127. 128. 



