351 



one can see very easily the sn])plantin,2: of the native ants hy 

 this species. 



ORIGIX. 



Coiisidcriiio' that the habits of this s])eeres were first studied 

 extensively hy J^rofessor Keer (1852, 1850) in ]\[adeira, and 

 the name (Ecophthora pusilla, given to it by him, it is only 

 natural for Brown (1809) to consider this ant peculiar to 

 that island. 



Investigations of recent years have demonstrated that J\ 

 megacephala is cosmopolitan, at least in the tropics and sub- 

 tropics. Dr. Wheeler informs me that the species seems to 

 have come from Madagascar or Africa originally, for it belongs 

 to a group of Phculole which is best represented in those 

 regions. 



There is no record of the time when this ant was intro- 

 duced into Hawaii, but Dr. Perkins (1913) states that even 

 during the last twenty years it has occiipied some considerable 

 areas previously free from it. Blackburn and Kirby (1880) 

 recorded it under the name Plicidole pusilla ITeer, remarking 

 that it was "one of the conmionest ants in Oahu, and ])rol)ably 

 elsewhere." 



l>ISTlMBUTIOX. 



It is an extremely easy nmtter for ants to 1)0 disti'ibuted 

 by shipping, for it is a common experience to find them in 

 packages of merchandise upon the wharves. A good illustra- 

 tion of this fact was recorded by Eckart (1902), who received 

 a barrel of borer-infested seed-cane from Deinerara, which 

 upon opening up was found to be sAvaruiing with /^ iihu/h- 

 cephala. 



The range of these ants is largely controlled by climatic 

 conditions. They are not tolerant of cold weather, aud ai)])ar- 

 ently, extremes of humidity are very injurious to them. 



Girault (1915) has recorded the destruction of vast num- 

 bers, due to slight frost in Queensland ; but his last statement 

 that the heaps of dead all seemed to be in ruts, might imply 

 that water came in as an additional death-factor. On several 

 occasions, while in Fiji during 1913, I observed similar piles 



