1895-1 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 49 



"Among the worst of stinging insects are ants; the large Poneras (or 

 Monopera ?) sting worse than a hornet. My wife was once stung by a 

 dozen or so. She had fever in consequence and was kept awake for a 

 whole night. The Mundurucu Indians of the river Tapajos have a unique 

 test which, as is well attested, young men endure before they take a wife. 

 They fill basket-work bags with tiie Ponera ants and thrust their arms \\\ 

 them to the shoulder. Sometimes with the bags tied on their arms they 

 dance through the village. After the test the man throws himself in a 

 stream, remaining there for hours, but this does not prevent fever. The 

 foraging ants {Eciion) sting painfully and attack everything in their way. 

 The little " fire-ants" {Myrmica), to my knowledge, have sometimes de- 

 populated villages; for instance, the village of Aveyros on the Tapajos, 

 now re-peopled. This village, which I saw, was one vast nest of the ants. 

 A single sting is insignificant, but when a thousand ants attack you at 

 once, the matter becomes formidable. The taixi tree of the Amazon 

 takes its name from a little ant always found on it, which, for its size 

 (about one-fourth inch long), is the most terrible insect I know of; the 

 sting is like a red hot needle. I do not know the genus." 



Ideotiflcation of Insects (Imagos) for Sabscribers. 



Specimens will be named under the foHowing conditions : ist, The number o( species 

 to be limited to twenty-five for each sending ; 2d, The sender to pay all expenses of trans- 

 portation and the insects to become the property of the American Entomological Society ; 

 3d, Each specimen must have a number attached so that the identification may be an- 

 nounced accordingly. Exotic species named only by special arrangement with the Editor, 

 who should be consulted before specimens are sent. Send a 2 cent stamp with all insects 

 for return of names. Before sending insects for identification, read page 41, Vol. III. 

 Address all packages to Entomological News, Academy Natural Sciences, Logan 

 Square, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Entomological Iviteratuire. 



1. La N.\turalez.a., ii, 5. Me.xico, 1893. [Received Dec. 17, 1894.] 

 — A new species of Lecanium from Mexico, T. D. A. Cockerell. 



2. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History. London, 

 December, 1894.— The dates of Moore's " Lepidoptera Indica," C. D. 

 Sherborn. 



3. The Proceedings of the Linxean Society of New South 

 Wales (2), viii, 4. Sydney, June 5, 1894.— A second note on the Caren- 

 ides, with descriptions of new species, T. G. Sloane. Note on the oc- 

 currence of Icerya ^gyptiacum Dougl. in New South Wales, W. W. 

 Froggatt— ix, i, Sept. 4, 1894. On the nests and habits of Australian 

 Vespidae and Larridie, W. W. Froggatt. On the life-histories of Australian 

 Coleoptera— ii, id. Note on the discovery of a destructive Floridian Coccid 

 {Icerya rosiB Riley and Howard) near Sydney, W. W. Froggatt. 



4. Sitzungsberichte der Kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften. 

 Math.-Naturwiss. Classe. cii, 10, Abt. i, Vienna, December, 1893. [Re- 



