-672 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXIII, 



following pages. Though these contribute little towards a solution of many 

 of the outstanding problems, they nevertheless contain a number of observa- 

 tions that may be of permanent interest and value. My attention was first 

 attracted to these insects several years ago while I was sojourning in Texas. 

 It was, in fact, the sight of a leaf-bearing file of Atta texana, moving along 

 the bank of Barton Creek near Austin, one sultry afternoon in September, 

 that first kindled my interest in the habits of ants. I postponed publishing 

 my notes on this and other species, hoping to have an opportunity to study 

 a greater number of forms in the heart of the tropics, but as there is no 

 immediate prospect of my being able to continue the work in these regions, 

 I have decided to publish my observations as they stand. The present 

 article is divided into four parts, namely, a resume of the writings of previous 

 students of the Attii, a taxonomic revision of the knoAvn North American 

 members of the group, including a few from Mexico and the West Indies, 

 an account of my own observations on these same forms, and a general 

 consideration of some of the main problems involved in the study of the 

 fungus-growing instincts not only in the Attii but also in the termites and 

 ambrosia beetles. 



Part I. Historical. 



The large leaf -cutting ants of the genus Atta s. str. are such conspicuous, 

 widely distributed, and destructive insects in tropical America that they 

 must have been only too familiar to the indigenes and the early settlers in 

 those regions. That these ants figured prominently in the Indian mytholo- 

 gies is indicated by a passage in the Popul Vuh, a collection of Guatemalan 

 traditions to which my friend Mr. F. Bandelier has called my attention.^ 

 This collection was made by Dominican friars, probably during the middle 

 or latter half of the sixteenth century. The following mj'th refers to the 

 larger species of Atta which are known to collect the petals and whole flowers 

 as well as the leaves of plants. The mjthical young men, Hunahpu and 

 Xbalanque, had been taken in ambush and required by their captors, Hun- 

 Came and Vukub-Came to fetch four vases of certain flowers as a test, and 

 to forfeit their lives in case of failure. "Thus they stayed in the House of 

 the Lances during the night, when they called on all the ants: "Cutting 

 ants and zampopos,^ come and together fetch the flowers designated by 

 the princes." 



1 Popul Vuh. Livre Sacrg et les Mythes de 1' Antiquity Americaine avec les Livres Hgroiques 

 et Historiques des Quichfe, par L' Abb6 Brasseur de Bourbour. Paris, Aug. Durand, 1861. 



- Zamc is the generic name of the ant. Chequen-zanic is a large ant which goes about at 

 night cutting the stems of vegetables and tender flowers, as if with scissors. Its name among 

 the Hispano-Guatemalan peoples is zampopo. (Commentator's note.) 



