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shell of the seed remains but little disturbed. The agents of this small 
mischief will frequently be found still buried in the cavities they have 
excayated—most commonly ants of a minute pale yellow species, a little 
more than a sixteenth of an inch in length, and very similar in size and 
general appearance to the minute “red ant’ which often infests the 
pantry. This injury to corn requires no treatment so far as is now | 
known, and, indeed, admits of none; but consistently with the plan of — 
this treatise, which is intended not only to summarize existing knowl- 
edge but still more to serve as a basis for future investigation, the two 
species thus far connected by us with this injury to corn are here briefly 
treated. 
Solenopsis debilis, Mayr.* 
(Plate IL, Fig. 2.) 
This ant is but little known, either to farmers or entomologists, 
having, in fact, not been discriminated as a species until 1886, in which 
year it was described by Mayr,t+ of Vienna, from specimens sent him — 
from North America. His description, with the appended remarks, is 
the only definite mention of it which I have found in the literature of 
Spe ey with the exception of my own reference (under the name 
of & fuga) to its injuries to straw berries and kernels of corn in the 
carth in the Thirteenth Report of the State Entomologist of Illinois, 
published in 1884 (p. 112). It is, however, probable that a reference 
under the same name made in 1889 by Mr. F. M. Webster{ to injuries 
to corn by ants in Indiana should really be apphed to this species. 
Mayr reports the species from the District of Columbia, New Jersey, 
and Virginia, under stones and in a stump under ground, and from 
Texas and New York. Winged males and females appear in July and 
August. 
It was first found by us June 1-12, 1883, at Normal, Tlinois, 
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 excavated in 
the softened grain. May 19, 1887, they were very abundant in a field 
of corn on 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. September 11-21, 1893, it was — 
found feeding 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 grain 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 seeds 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 September 
in attendance upon the root louse of corn, Aphis maidiradicis, sharing 
with several other species of ants the cares and benefits of this associa- 
tion. It occurs more frequently, according to our observations, at this 
* [= S. molesta Say wherever used in this report. ] ' 
+ Die Formiciden der V ereinigten Staaten von Nord-america in Verhondiungen® 
der k. k. gool-botan. Gesellschaft in Wien, XXXVI (1886), p. 461. ; 
¢ “Insect Life,’ Vol. II., p. 257. 
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