WHEELER: ANTS OF THE GENUS FORMICA. 483 
Host (Temporary). F. fusca var. subsericea. 
Tyre LocaLiry.— New Hampshire (Forel). 
New Hampshire: Canobie Lake (G. B. King); Franconia (Mrs. 
A. T. Slosson); Raymond (W. Reiff). 
Georgia: Rabun Bald Mountain (W. T. Davis). 
North Carolina: Black Mountain (Forel). 
Maryland: Baltimore (E. A. Andrews); Prince George County 
(W. T. Davis). 
New Jersey: Newfoundland (W. T. Davis and Wheeler); Palisades; 
Alpine (W. Beutenmiiller); Westfield, Scotch Plains, Halifax, Pater- 
son (Wheeler); Tenafly (G. v. Krockow). 
Pennsylvania: Hollidaysburg, Warrior’s Mark, ete., (H. C. Mc- 
Cook); Lehigh Water Gap, Beatty (P. J. Schmitt). 
New York: Staten Island (W. T. Davis); Ramapo Mts., Bronx- 
ville (Wheeler); West Farms (J. Angus); Garrison-on-Hudson (T. 
D. A. Cockerell). 
Connecticut: Branford, North Haven, New Haven (H. L. Viereck); 
New Hartford, Stafford (W. E. Britton); Cromwell, Hartford (Forel); 
Colebrook (Wheeler). 
Massachusetts: Sherborn, Wellesley (A. P. Morse); Essex County, 
Mt. Tom (G. B. King); Lowell, Tyngsboro (F. Blanchard); Lake 
Pleasant (Carey); Warwick (Miss Edwards); Woods Hole, Forest 
Hills, Blue Hills (Wheeler); Worcester (Forel). 
Maine: Ogunquit (H. S. Pratt); South Harpswell (Wheeler). 
Illinois: (M. C. Tanquary). 
Wisconsin: Prairie du Chien (H. Muckermann). 
Ontario: Toronto (R. J. Crew). 
Nova Scotia: Round Hill (Centr. Exp. Farms Coll.). 
This is the well-known “‘ mound-building ant of the Alleghenies,’’ the 
habits of which were described many years ago by Rev. H. C. Mc- 
Cook, who studied its huge colonies (one of them comprising some 
1,600 nests!) in the mountains of Pennsylvania. The nests are large 
conical mounds, often 2.5 ft. high and 9.5 ft. in convex diameter, 
consisting very largely of earth, and erected in clearings in the woods. 
I have shown that the females establish their colonies by temporary 
parasitism in small colonies of F. fusca var. subsericea. Old colonies 
are frequently extinguished or compelled to move to new quarters by 
the growth of a carpet of moss (Polytrichum commune) over the sur- 
face of the nest. F. exsectoides is a very fierce ant and furiously 
attacks any intruder on its preserves. It kills other ants by decapi- 
tating them, a habit which seems to be peculiar to the members of the 
exsecta group. 
