THE NAME OF OUR ANT 57 



Dear Children: 



I have identified the ant you are studying as Vera- 

 messor andrei Mayer. I would say that Veramessor is 

 simply a synonym of Messor and Stenamma. Origin- 

 ally all these ants were placed in the genus Stenamma 

 by Emery, and later he and Forel called some of the 

 California species Messors, thus placing them in a 

 genus which is common in the Mediterranean region. 

 Later it was found that the wing venation of the Cali- 

 fornia forms is different from that of the Mediter- 

 ranean Messors, so Forel suggested the genus Vera- 

 messor for our southwestern species. There seems to 

 be several of these, some of them occurring in Lower 

 California. If you get over into Lower California, 

 you might make some interesting discoveries in the 

 species of this genus. Yours very sincerely, 



W. H. WHEELER. 

 Forest Hills, Boston, Mass. 



Mr. Wheeler says our kind of ants hasn't been studied 

 much. I wish somebody would write a book on Ants, for 

 children, like Dr. Wheeler has for grown people. We have 

 more time to study ants than grown-ups have. 



CECIL. We all thank Dr. Wheeler for his help, also 

 Dr. C. W. Woodworth of the University of California for 

 his Bulletin No. 207, College of Agriculture, and Dr. Henry 

 McCook for his interesting books on Ants. 



FLORENCE. Well, I'm now acquainted with a real 

 carpenter and a real farmer I mean harvester. I guess 

 they are both well named. I never saw other such har- 

 vesters as ours are. 



