April-June, 1920 Bulletin Brooklyn Entomological Society 71 



A NfiW HOST OF LABOULBENIA FORMICARUM THAXTER, 



WITH REMARKS ON THE FUNGOUS PARASITES 



OF ANTS. 



By J. Bequaert, American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York City. 



Among some ants collected last summer near Boston, was 

 found a worker of Formica pallide-fulva Latreille subsp. schau- 

 fussi Mayr, which on examination by Prof. Wheeler proved to 

 be infested with the curious parasitic fungus Laboulbenia formi- 

 carum Thaxter. This ant was incidentally picked up, running 

 over the sidewalk in Arborway Park, at Forest Hills, Mass. 

 (August 7). I was unable to discover the infested nest or any 

 other specimens carrying the fungus. In addition to the ant here 

 mentioned, the known hosts of this fungus include now such 

 common species as Lasiiis niger (Linne) var. am^ericanus Emery, 

 L. niger var. neoniger Emery, and Formica suhpolita Mayr var. 

 neogagates Emery. But, strange to say, it has been recorded 

 thus far only from the vicinity of Boston, where it is of rather 

 frequent occurrence (Cambridge, Ellisville and Forest Hills). 

 There is apparently no reason why it should not be found in 

 many other localities, when properly looked for. 



The scarcity of parasitic fungi on ants is rather surprising and 

 has often been comimented upon. It is by no means due to lack 

 of proper investigation ; for ants exist everywhere in great abun- 

 dance and have been intensely studied both in nature and in the 

 cabinet ; it would be difficult to name another group of insects of 

 which such large numbers of specimens have been collected and 

 examined. The great rarity of these fungous parasites can, how- 

 ever, be easily accounted for by the proverbial habits of cleanli- 

 ness characteristic of ants, "which tend to suppress or render 

 impossible the development of the fungi, except under unusual 

 conditions. All ants devote a great deal of time and attention to 

 cleaning their own integument and that of their nestmates. They 

 are, indeed, forever combing and scraping the surfaces of their 

 bodies with their tongues and strigils, so that fungi must find it 

 difficult to gain a precarious foothold in their nests, to say noth- 

 ing of an opportunity to proliferate" (Wheeler). 



