200 



5. Ponera foeda Forel. 



Cuernavaca, Dec. 26. A single nest containiug about a dozen ants 

 with several larvae of various sizes, found under a stone on a shady 

 hillslope. Larvae similar to those of P. opaciceps. 



6. Leptogenys Wheeleri Forel. 



Cuernavaca, Dec. 27. A single nest on a dry hill-slope under a 

 large stone. The ants were exceedingly active and disappeared in 

 the surrounding, grass so quickly that only two workers and a few 

 cocoons could be secured. The latter were slender and dark brown 

 like those of L. (LobopeltaJ elongata Buckly. Under the same 

 stone was found a termite nest and an Embiid {Olyntha Wheeleri 

 Melander). 



7. Atta fervens Say. 



This destructive leaf-cutling ant is very common everywhere about 

 Queretaro and Cuernavaca, even excavating its liuge nés (s in the 

 paved and much-frequented roads. In Quereiaro and some other 

 parts of Mexico thèse ants are called " hormigas arriéras «, in Cuer- 

 navaca they are commonly called " cuatalatas ». The species 

 cerlainly differs in several respects from the Atta ferveurs of Texas. 

 The huge soldiers hâve glabrous heads acd often two ocelli. They 

 attend the files of smaller leaf-cutting workers. The Texan form is 

 lighter in color and its soldiers hâve opaque velvety heads, without 

 ocelli. There is also a différence in habits. At Queretaro, in three 

 différent nests, the ants were seen to hâve a spécial group of openings 

 from which they had thrown whole bushels of the exhausted leaf- 

 manure brought up from their subterranean fungus-gardens. In one 

 case the same nest had openings on both sides of a broad road. The 

 pièces of fresh leaves were being carried into the openings on the one 

 side, and the exhausted végétal débris was being dumped from the 

 other set of openings. The Texan form appears to retain the 

 exhausted substance in its chambers and piles the fresh material on 

 top of it, so that in some nests the gardens may be several inches 

 deep. 



8. Cyphomyrmex rimosus Spinola, subsp. dentatus 

 Forel. 



Cuernavaca, Dec. 26. Not uncommon along the barrancas where it 

 nests under stones, forming irr^gular chambers about the roots of the 

 grasses. There are someiimes two queens in a nest. The older and 

 darker queens and workers hâve the head and thorax covered with a 

 bluish bloom. C. rimosus is saidnot to cultivate mushroom gardens, 

 but this is scarsely correct. They certainly collect caterpillar 

 excrément and on, this they grow a peculiar fungus which is not in 



