1906.] Wheeler, Habits of the Tent-building Ant. 5 



off. The nest was 3 cm. long, 1.3 cm. broad at the largest part, near 

 the middle, tapering somewhat toward each end, where it was quite 

 abruptly rounded off, running down the stem in a thin, solid layer 

 for a very short distance. The walls, which had an average thickness 

 of about 0.5 mm., also ran out in the same way, where the branchlets 

 passed through. These decurrent portions formed the only support 

 of the structure, which thus enclosed a capacious chamber surrounding 

 the twig. On the inner surface, so far as seen, the wall was carefully 

 smoothed off; the outer surface was quite irregular and rough. A 

 small round opening existed at each end. That at the top was 3 

 mm. in diameter: the lower one was very minute, having a diameter 

 of less than i mm. As I have said, the nest at first sight appeared 

 to cohsist of dry bog-moss; a microscopic examination, however, 

 showed the material to be chiefly small fragments of wood — evi- 

 dently obtained from an old log lying at the foot of the shrub — with 

 small quantities of the leaf-fragments of mosses and phaenogams, 

 the whole apparently glued together by the saliva of the ants. . 



"The ants proved to be workers of Cremastogaster lineolata Say; 

 not having winged individuals, I did not attempt to identify the 

 aphides. Both, with the nest, have been placed in the biological 

 collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, 

 Mass." 



In more recent 3^ears our entomologists seem to have paid little 

 attention to the aphis-sheds of C. lineolata. Professor Comstock 

 has found these structures repeatedly in the neighborhood of Ithaca, 

 N. Y., and has kindly sent me a specimen of one of them together 

 with a photograph of another. They are both of the earthen type 

 and are reproduced in Figs, i and 2, PI. IV. The specimen from 

 which Fig. i was made is 3.5 cm. long, 2 cm. broad, and only 1.5 cm. 

 thick. It is somewhat pyramidal in outline and has a circular open- 

 ing 1.75 mm. in diameter, in its lower portion. Professor Comstock 

 sends me the following field-notes concerning these tents: "The 

 aphis-tents occurred upon dogwood growing on the banks of a stream. 

 The dogwood was growing in a perfectly dry place, but only a few 

 rods above a wet one. Although I collected these tents in several 

 succeeding years, I never took the time to trace the ants back to their 

 nest. The locality is a considerable distance from the University, 

 and I visited it each year on an excursion with my class when there 

 were many things to see, so that I had not much time to devote to 

 these ants. These trips were made during the month of August of 

 each year. I find one of my tents labelled Aug. 2d, '88, another 



