176 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



The nests of the red ant may be formed in the walls 

 of a house, under the floors, among trash in old trunks or 

 boxes, or in the lawn or garden just outside the door. 



The small black ant. This ant (Monomorium minimum) 

 is smaller, if anything, than the red ant, although there 

 is little visible difference between them in size (Fig. 49). 

 They differ decidedly in appearance, for this one is dark 

 in color and easily distinguished from the red one. The 

 nests of the little black ant are sometimes under stones 

 in the yard, but are more often in the open. The nests 

 have small craters about the entrances 

 made of fine grains of soil. When the 

 nests are opened there will usually be 

 found, among the workers, one or more 

 large females. 



The black ant is not strictly a house 

 ant, at least not as much so as the red 

 ant, yet it often invades dwellings in 

 F IG 49 The small considerable numbers and becomes 

 black ant. (x u.) somewhat of a nuisance. The inva- 

 sions are due to the workers who 

 wander some distance from their nests on foraging ex- 

 peditions. 



The pavement ant. The pavement ant (Tetramorium 

 cespitum) is an introduced form. It seems to be widely 

 distributed in Europe and constitutes one of the common 

 meadow ants in that country. When introduced in 

 this country it took up its abode in some of our Eastern 

 cities along the Atlantic seaboard, New York, Phila- 

 delphia and Baltimore. Here it established itself by 

 building its nests beneath the pavement or under flagging 

 stones in the yards of dwellings. From these situations 



