159 



ster has found this ant feeding on l^roken grains at the tip of the ear. 

 We have seen it in wheat and strawljerry fields and on grasses and red 

 clover. It resembles the small brown ant {Lasius niger) common in 

 grass lands, but is much more shining, and the abdomen expands for- 

 wards strongly at the base, the scale of the nodal segment being corre- 

 spondingly reduced. The head and abdomen are pitchy brown and 

 darker than the thorax. 



The Texan Agricultural Ant. 

 Pogonomyrmex barbatus Smith. 



The curious agricultural ant of Texas bares the ground about its nest 

 by cutting down and removing all vegetation, completely clearing a 

 space often seven to twelve feet in diameter. Its nests occur in a great 

 variety of situations, and cultivated crops, including corn, are some- 

 times seriously injured where the ants are abundant. 



The mature inmates of a nest are the males, females, and minor and 

 major workers, the latter being distinguishable especially by the large 

 size of the head. The workers are wingless, dark claret-brown; the minor 

 ones five sixteenths of an inch long, the major, seven sixteenths. The 

 sexed individuals are winged, at least at first, paler in color; the males 

 half an inch long; the females five eighths of an inch. These ants have 

 a ))eculiar long beard on the under side of the head, which gives them 

 their species name. They have been carefully studied by McCook, 

 who has given us an interesting account of them and of their remarkable 

 habits.* Farmers have reported to him the destruction of sweet pota- 

 toes, sorghum, and squashes, and in one case quite a serious injury to 

 corn. 



They open roadways — often radiating from the disks for hun- 

 dreds of feet — a few inches wide at the starting-point, narrowing and 

 branching as they go. Scattering over the surrounding area by means 

 of these roadways, they harvest the fallen seeds of buffalo-grass and 

 other grasses and store them in their nests. A growth of needle-grass 

 or " ant-rice," supposed by some authors to have been planted by the ants, 

 often springs up in their cleared areas. McCook thinks, however, that 

 this is a voluntary growth which the ants permit for the sake of its seeds. 



This ant occurs in Texas and Mexico, and probably northward into 

 Indian Territory and New^ Mexico. 



The Leaf-cuttl\u Ant. 

 Atta fervcns Say. 

 In this species we have another Texan ant of remarkable and inter- 

 esting habits which is known to injure corn. It cuts out fresh leaves — 



*"The Agricultural Ant of Texas." Philadelphia, 1880. 



