176 



thinking that there might be some species of Coccid in the 

 vicinity of the hole I proceeded to carefully remove the soil, 

 and after going down about three inches unearthed what might 

 be called an ''underground grainary." This was a hollow of 

 about four inches wide by four inches high, with galleries lead- 

 ing off into other "grainaries," the main nest itself being several 

 feet away. 



The grain consisted of every kind of grass seed to be fovmd 

 in the neighborhood and was closely and carefully packed. 



These 'observations were taken as hurriedly as possible for 

 the little insect certainly earns the name given it in Central 

 America, viz., ''Homega brava," or fire. ant. 



Solenopsis might safely be placed in the list of beneficial 

 insects. W. E. Hinds, of the Department . of Agriculture, re- 

 ports that it is an established enemy of both the Cotton leaf 

 worm and Cotton boll weevil, while I have personally seen these 

 ants capture and carry off several leaf roller larvae. 



The different kinds of insect remains found in a nest is in 

 itself an afternoon's work for an entomologist. 



A great deal of information has been collected with reference 

 to the supposed intelligence of ants, but I never realized this 

 until experimenting with some ant poison. The ants would 

 come and carry into the nest a certain amount of food, which 

 was in the form of a dough, when suddenly a large number of 

 ants would issue from the nest, take a small particle of dirt in 

 the mandible and completely cover the poison, also making gal- 

 leries under the tin containing the poison ; this was the result 

 each time I experimented with the dough, in fact they soon 

 recognized the poison and covered it over without touching it. 



To test the sense of smell in Solenopsis a big one was teth- 

 ered to a board by a thread ; when her excitement had subsided 

 and she was quite motionless, I approached her with a stick 

 very quietly so as almost to touch first one and then the other 

 antenna, which, however, did not move. I then dipped the stick 

 in benzine and repeated the operation ; the antennae was slowly 

 retraced and drawn quite back. I w^as, of course, careful not to 

 touch the antennae. Then I cut the head off and tried the same 

 experiment with exactly the same results. 



Mr. McCook considers that ants recognize each other by 

 scent and states that if ants are more or less soaked in water 

 they are no longer recognized by their friends but are attacked. 



