246 INSECTS AND MAN 



The naming of the ant after the country of its origin 

 finds its counterpart in the Colorado potato beetle, the 

 Mexican cotton boll weevil, the American cockroach, the 

 San Jose scale, etc. American entomologists declare that 

 this insect is not excelled in destructiveness by the gipsy 

 moth, the boll weevil, or the San Jose' scale a statement 

 the gravity of which will be realised by those who read 

 the pages devoted to these pests. Limited at present in 

 the United States to relatively small areas, the insect is 

 steadily advancing, and is likely to spread over a large 

 district. First observed in New Orleans, Louisiana (hence 

 one of its names), a little more than twenty years ago, it 

 has now increased from " a few scattered and apparently 

 insignificant specimens to armies and hordes numbering 

 myriads of individuals. It has spread from a few blocks 

 on the water front of the Mississippi River over practically 

 the entire city, and has sent out vast numbers of colonists 

 for hundreds of miles along the railways and water- 

 ways radiating from New Orleans. These pioneers have 

 succeeded in founding scores of communities of more or 

 less importance in the smaller cities and towns. Each 

 of these communities is in turn furnishing its quota of 

 migrants, and these are extending the affected territory in 

 all directions from the original source of infestation. Thus, 

 instead of the dispersion being from one source only, it is 

 now taking place from hundreds of different points. 



" From an unknown and little noticed insect this ant has 

 developed into one of the foremost household pests in the 

 world, and its ravages affect, directly or indirectly, the 

 majority of the crops grown in the South. Former in- 

 difference to its movements has given way to concern at 

 its approach." America is not the only country that has 

 fallen under the spell of this voracious and destructive 

 little insect. Introduced, by accident, into Madeira, it 

 entirely exterminated another ant, Pheidole megacephala, 

 which itself had, on its introduction to the island, ex- 



