768 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 518. 



are slow and deliberate (sic!), and, like the 

 so-called praying mantis, it stands for long 

 periods quite motionless, with, the antennae 

 and mandibles extended, ready for something 

 to come that way and be caught.' This must 

 be ' enterprise ' as understood by the Jewish 

 tailor of the comic papers who stands in the 

 doorway of his shop waiting for customers. 



It seems that I was mistaken in supposing 

 that the colonies of the kelep contain only 

 from 20 to 110 workers, though these num- 

 bers were taken from Dr. Cook's own state- 

 ment concerning the colonies introduced into 

 Texas. We are now told that they (not the 

 colonies in Texas ! ) comprise between 200 and 

 300 individuals and that ' there are seldom 

 less than 100 and sometimes 400 or more.' 

 E"ow even if we put the number at 500, these 

 are still very small colonies, as ant colonies 

 go, and show conclusively that the kelep, 

 like other Ponerinse, must be either short-lived 

 or much less prolific than other ants, or both. 



The adaptability of the kelep, according 

 to Dr. Cook, is ' shown by its association with 

 the cotton for the sake of its nectar, as well 

 as by its skill in stinging the boll weevil.' If 

 this shows anything it does not show adapta- 

 bility but adaptation, which is a very different 

 matter. The first part of Dr. Cook's state- 

 ment, together with several of his previous 

 statements, implies that the cotton plant and 

 the kelep live in a state of symbiosis, like that 

 which has been claimed to exist between the 

 South American Cecropia tree and the ant 

 Azteca instabilis, and between the African 

 and tropical American acacias and the species 

 of Sima and Pseudomyrma respectively. 

 These classical cases, however, have never 

 been demonstrated to the satisfaction of 

 either the botanists or the myrmecologists. 

 Any one who observes without bias the 

 insects visiting many plants with extra-floral 

 nectaries, like our species of Cassia, Bicinus, 

 Stillingia, Populus, etc., will find that cer- 

 tainly in such cases no symbiosis exists. Not 

 only do all sorts of ants, mutillids, bees, wasps, 

 beetles, flies, etc., visit the extra-floral nec- 

 taries, but caterpillars, chrysomelid larvae, 

 etc., may be found feeding with impunity on 

 the lacerated foliage of the plants thus 'pro- 



tected.' It is possible, of course, that some 

 of the cases of so-called ant and plant sym- 

 biosis may be genuine, but before any such 

 statement can be made of a particular case 

 like the cotton plant, we need much more con- 

 cise, abundant and painstaking observations 

 than have been published hitherto. 



I fail to see, therefore, that Dr. Cook has 

 produced any facts that could lead me to 

 ' mitigate ' the statements made in my former 

 paper. The kelep is a typical ponerine ant, 

 with all the disadvantages of a fixed and 

 archaic constitution in the presence of experi- 

 ments that require for their successful execu- 

 tion a plastic and adaptable species. When 

 the kelep has succeeded in becoming a thriv- 

 ing component of the Texan ant fauna there 

 will be time enough to determine whether its 

 strenuous and enterprising efforts can ' add 

 even ten per cent, to the cotton crop ' — we 

 will not expect it to chase all the boll weevils 

 into the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Cook himself 

 admits that ' the chances are still very much 

 against it, no doubt.' This is exactly what 

 I have maintained. Neither I nor any one 

 else blames the Department of Agriculture for 

 following every clue till some ' concrete con- 

 clusion ' is reached, but the premature and 

 persistent booming of a conclusion which is 

 far from being ' concrete ' and has ' chances 

 very much against it ' can only discredit the 

 Department of Agriculture, Dr. Cook and the 

 unsuspecting kelep in the eyes of the general 

 public, the Texan cotton grower and the sci- 

 entist. I shall have no further remarks to 

 make on the kelep and am satisfied to await 

 patiently the concretion of the conclusions — 

 even till the Greek calends. 



William Morton Wheeler. 



are they sympathetic drums? 

 To THE Editor op Science : Some of the 

 African xylophones (marimbas) and those of 

 Central America, which negro slaves intro- 

 duced there, have resonators — gourds, or cylin- 

 ders of cane or of bamboo, placed beneath 

 each sounding-bar. Often at the lower end the 

 side . of each resonator is pierced with a lat- 

 eral hole and covered with a thin film or mem- 

 brane. I have never found a reasonable ex- 



