Jan., 'o6] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 25 



the following extract from Heer's work : " It occurs through- 

 out the southern portion of the island of Madeira up to an 

 elevation of 1,000 feet in prodigious numbers, especially in hot, 

 sunny places, where it is to be found under eight out of every 

 ten stones that may be overturned. In the city of Funchal 

 there is probably not a single house that is not infested w 7 ith 

 millions of these insects. They climb to the top stories, issue 

 in swarms from the cracks in walls and floors and keep traver- 

 sing the rooms in all directions in regular files. They creep 

 up the legs of the tables, along their edges and into the cup- 

 boards, chests, etc. On account of their extremely diminu- 

 tive size they are able to enter the smallest holes and 

 crevices. Even when thousands and thousands of" them are 

 killed, there is no reduction in their numbers, as fresh armies 

 are continually arriving." The recent displacement of this 

 pest by another, Iridomyrmex humilis, bears a close and inter- 

 esting analogy to the well-known displacement in Europe and 

 America of the black house-rat (Mus rattus) by the brown 

 species (M. decuma?ius) . In a similar manner, according to 

 Stoll, another ant, Plagiolepis longipes Jerdon, introduced into 

 the island of Reunion from its original home in Cochin China, 

 has driven out some of the primitive autochthonous species. 

 We may also look forward to the appearance of this same ant 

 within the warmer portions of the United States, since it has 

 already been recorded by Pergande from Todos Santos in 

 Lower California.* 



Still another foreign ant which has acquired a footing, in 

 tropical Florida and probably also in other localities in the 

 Gulf States, is Prenolepis longicornis Latreille. It has also be- 

 come a common species in the green houses of temperate 

 Europe and America. In some of these, as in the Jardin des 

 Plantes in Paris, it has been a permanent resident for more 

 than forty years. It may sometimes be found even on the top 

 floors of the great apartment buildings in New York City. 

 Wasmanf has just given good reasons for believing that the 



* Portnicidae of Lower California, Mexico. Proe. Cala. Acad. Sc. (2) iv, 1894, P- 163. 



f /in Lebensweise einiger in- and auslandischen Araeisengfiste 3. Wanderungen von 

 Coluocera maderce Woll. (oculata Bel.) mit Prenolepis longicornis Latr. Zeitschr'. f. wiss. 

 [nsect.-biol. Bd. 1, 1 left 9. Sept. 17, 1905, pp. 384-390. 



