426 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Nov., ’08 
But I added that I should soon be in Florida and hoped to 
find again specimens of the rare little creatures. As I had 
looked for them already for ten years with no success this hope 
seemed an uncertain and feeble thing. I cherished it, how- 
ever, and searched often in the most promising spots for the 
tiny Saldiid but always vainly. 
As often happens in this odd life of ours I found it at a 
time when I was not hunting for it, not even thinking of it. 
I had been delighted to discover for the first time a colony of 
Atta, one of the ants which make fungus-gardens. I had read 
with great interest of their habits and Mr. William T. Davis 
had told me of watching colonies at Lakehurst. I was much 
excited over my own recognition of the little gardeners. For 
several days I spent hours at a time bending over the nest 
and watching the ants returning from their quest with ma- 
terial for planting or keeping up the fungus-garden. It was 
while I was trying to keep track of one of those on its cir- 
cuitous, wandering way that I noticed a strange looking ant 
on the damp soil. Not thinking of Saldoida, interested at the 
moment in ants and ants only, I wet my finger and lifted the 
creature to drop into my bottle. As I did so I was conscious 
that I had crushed it. Now ants do not crush easily and the _ 
apparent softness of this one’s body surprised me. But | 
forgot it in a minute as I intercepted the next little agriculturist 
and robbed him of his small burden. I was much occupied 
for the rest of that day and so did not even look over the con- 
tents of my various alcohol and cyanide bottles. But lying 
awake that night and living over, as one often does, the field 
experiences of the day I thought suddenly of the crushed in- 
sect. In a flash I remembered Saldoida and felt that I had 
again found one of the genus. I could not wait but struck a 
light, poured out the contents of the cyanide bottle and with 
my magnifying glass searched for the specimen. I found it, 
broken and crushed but plainly recognizable as what I had so 
long sought. 
Of course I went to the spot next morning; in fact I went 
nowhere else, spending hours at the damp piece of ground 
