34^ Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXII, 



somewhat more by and by), as likewise the grass-hopper, and a 

 certaine sommer-singinge great flie, the sure token of the established 

 springe (and in that respect as the English nightingale and cukoe), 

 whose loud note very much resemblinge the whirle of a spindle, hath 

 caused herselfe thereby to be called the good-husewife." Hurdis 

 mentions two species of Formicidse, a house-ant and another ant of 

 larger size which he supposed to be of West Indian origin: "Hill and 

 dale and even the dwellings of men were equally alive with this insect 

 pest. Dense columns of them might be seen travelling up and down 

 every tree, and great was the havoc they occasioned among young 

 pigeons and poultry, nor did the full-grown domestic rabbit escape 

 their deadly attack, and pigs were sometimes destroyed by them." 

 It is, of course, impossible to identify the species from these quota- 

 tions. Hurdis's account may refer to the tropicopolitan fire-ant 

 (Solenopsis geminata) or to Monomorium destructor, but whether he 

 refers to one of these or to some other species, it is certainly of interest 

 that no such species can be recognized among those enumerated by 

 subsequent writers. He mentions the fact that the ant, after infesting 

 Bermuda to a "fearful degree " for seven consecutive summers previous 

 to 1848, was greatly reduced in numbers from some unknown cause. 

 We must conclude that it has since become extinct or, at any rate, so 

 rare as to have escaped the notice of subsequent collectors like 

 Professor Verrill and Professor Kincaid. The supplanting of one 

 species of ant by another is not unknown on other islands as I have 

 shown in a recent paper. ^ In Madeira, for example, according to 

 Stoll,^ Pheidolc megacephala, which was extremely abundant in the 

 first half of the nineteenth century, as we learn from the careful work 

 of Heer,^ has been displaced by another tramp species, Iridomyrmex 

 humilis. Stoll has also called attention to the extermination of the 

 indigenous ant-fauna of the island of Reunion by Plagiolepis longipes 

 of Cochin China. 



If we omit the ants mentioned by Hurdis as unrecognizable, the 

 following list comprises all the species known from the Bermudas: 

 Subfamily Ponerin^. 



I. Ponera opaciceps Mayr. — A dealated female and five workers 

 collected by Professor Kincaid belong to the typical form of this 

 species. 



iQn Certain Tropical Ants Introduced into the United States. Entomol. News, Jan., 1906, 

 pp. 23-26. 



2Zur Kenntniss der geographischen Verbreitung der Ameisen. Mittheil. d. Schweii. entomol. 

 Gesell., X, 3, 1898, pp. 120-126. 



•^Ueber die Hausameise Madeiras. An die Ziiricher Jugend auf das Jahr 1852 v. d. naturforsch. 

 Gesell. 54. Stuck, 1852, pp. 1-24, i Taf. 



