June, 1908.] Proceedings of the Society. 117 



Notes on a New Guest Ant by Prof. W. M. Wheeler. ' 



Entomolog. Berichten, II, Nos. 31-36. 



Notes on some American Noctuids in the British Museum by Prof. John B. Smith. 



Bull. No. 24, Georgia State Board of Entomology. 



Ent. Circul. No. 20, No. Carolina Dept. Agriculture. 



Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, Vol. XLVI, No. 186. 



The treasurer, Mr. Davis, reported that the society's balance was $909.86 and 

 the journal's $197.51. 



Mr. Davis exhibited some ants, one of which {Sysphincta pergandei Roger) Pro- 

 fessor Wheeler mentioned as being a very rsre insect, previously taken by only two 

 other collectors, Father J. Schmitt and Mr. T. Pergande. Professor Wheeler had 

 never been able to find a specimen of this species. 



Professor Wheeler gave a most interesting account of his summer's trip, briefly 

 sketching his stop in the Azores, Gibralter, Genoa and in the neighborhood of lake 

 Geneva. His account of the work of Professor Forel, with whom he visited for six 

 weeks, was most entertaining. 



Society adjourned. 



Meeting of October 15, 1907. 



Held at the American Museum of Natural History. President C. W. Eeng in 

 the chair, with twelve members present. The proceedings of May 21 and October I 

 were read and approved. 



The librarian, Mr. Schaeffer, reported the receipt of the following exchanges : 



Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences, Vol. XLII, Xo. 29. 



Canad. Entomologist, Vol. XXXIX, No. 10. 



Anales de Museo Nacional de Montevideo, Vol. VI. 



Berliner Entomolog. Zeitschr., Vols. LII, No. I and XLII, Nos. I and 2. 



38 pamphlets on Ants presented to the society by Miss Adele M. Fielde through 

 Professor Wheeler. 



Mr. Southwick moved that the librarian determine the cost of binding the remain- 

 ing files of the Journal of the New Vork Entomological Society and report same at 

 the next meeting of the society. 



Mr. Zabriski reported that he was one of a committee appointed by the Brooklyn 

 Entomological Society to prepare a list of insects of Long Island. He requested the 

 cooperation of the members of the New Vork Society in this work. 



Professor Wheeler exhibited the work of an ant {Azteca muelleri) in the trunk of 

 the Cecropia tree {Cecropia adenopus). Professor Wheeler remarked that while in 

 Hamburg during last summer he heard through the Museum there of a man who had 

 brought from Santa Catharina, Brazil, a great number of the trunks of the Ceaopia 

 tree containing these ant-nests. He was able to secure a number of excellent examples 

 of their workings. Though there was considerable confusion in the synonomy of this 

 particular ant, it was undoubtedly Azteca muelleri Emery. A number of Azteca species 

 are known and all are neotropical and exclusively arboreal, as they have never been 

 known to nest in the ground. The food of A. muelleri is an excretion of the trees 

 produced in peculiar cushion-like growths [trichilia) at the bases of the leaf petioles. 

 These ants do not have a sting but are protected by a rancid smelling excretion which 

 acts as a repellant to their foes. These ants make their way into the interior of the 



