24 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. LJ an > ' c6 



and are very numerous in individuals. They prefer animal to 

 vegetable substances, destroying dead insects, bird skins, etc., 

 but also feed greedily on sugar. They are very common in all 

 parts of India, and often prove very troublesome and destruct- 

 ive to the naturalist." The bad reputation of this ant is ex- 

 pressed in two other names which have been given it by 

 Frederic Smith and Gerstaecker, on the supposition that it had 

 not been previously described ; the former calling it Myrmica 

 vastator, the latter Myrmica ominosa. The insect is repeatedly 

 met with in the literature under these and other names like 

 Monomorium atomaria and M. basale. 



There are now three imported species of Monomorium in the 

 United States, all of which have probably been carried by ships 

 from their original home in southeastern Asia, namely : M. 

 pharaonis, M. floricola and M. destructor. The first is a widely 

 distributed house-ant, not only in the tropics, but also in tem- 

 perate Europe and America ; the second is tropicopolitan, 

 though it manages to subsist in our northern green-houses ; 

 the last, as I have just shown, has begun to spread into tem- 

 perate North America. In a recent paper* I recorded the 

 introduction of a fourth Mojiomorium (M. salomonis Linn), a 

 well-known North African species, into the Bahamas. 



Another small tropical ant which has recently gained a foot- 

 hold in the United States is Iridomyrmex humilis Mayr. This 

 species has been taken in numbers in New Orleans by Mr. E. 

 S. G. Titus. As a native of the New World, it was supposed 

 to be confined to South America (Brazil and Argentina). It 

 is not included among the known Mexican or Central Ameri- 

 can ants, nor can I find any record of its occurrence in the 

 West Indies. 



According to Stollf this ant has also been imported into 

 Madeira where it has become a pest in houses and has sup- 

 planted another previously introduced ant (Pheido/e megace- 

 phala Fabr.) which was the house-ant of Madeira in the days 

 of Heer.J Some idea of the numbers of Ph. megacephala in 

 Madeira in the middle of the last century may be gained from 



*• The Ants of the Bahamas. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist, xxi, 1905, p. 89. 



t Zur Kenntniss der geographischen Verbreitung der Ameisen. Mitt. d. schweiz. entom. 

 Gesell. x, 3. r8o8, pp. 120-126. 



I Ucber die- Hausameise Madeiras. An die Zuricher Jugend auf das Jahr 1852 v. d. 

 naturforsch. Gesell. 54 Stuck, 1852, pp. 1-24 Taf. 



