191 



cunda Emery, subnuda Emery, subintegra Emery, and puberula 

 Emery. Wheeler has seen Formica sanguinea "plunder a subsericea 

 nest nearly every day for a week or a fortnight." In raiding a nest 

 the ants carry off the larvae and pupae to their own nests, to serve as 

 slaves when matured. 



Wheeler (1. c, p. 374) states that subsericea may live in a great 

 variety of situations — an unusual trait, but indicated in our collect- 

 ing by its presence in both forest and prairie. 



Formica pdlide-fulva Latr., subsp. schaufussi Mayr, var. incerta 

 Emery. 



This common reddish ant was taken on the prairie from flowers 

 of the common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca (Sta. I), Aug. 12 (No. 

 27) ; and on the Loxa prairie from flowers of the mountain mint 

 Pycnanthemum pilosum or P- flexuosum (Sta. II) Aug. 13 (No. 52). 



This ant was associated on the milkweeds with Myrmica rubra 

 Linn., subsp. scabrinodis Nyl., var. sabuleti Meinert, and Formica 

 fusca subsericea Emery. 



Wheeler ('05, pp. 373, 374) lists this species as frequenting glades, 

 "open sunny woods, clearings, or borders of woods," and further adds 

 that the glade and field faunas are not separated by a sharp line, for 

 "Formica schaufussi, for example, seems to occur indifferently in 

 either station." That open patches in woods or glades often contain 

 ants which also frequent open places, is thus in harmony with a gen- 

 eral rule for this association, not only in the case of animals but also 

 of plants, so that it applies to the entire biota of such situations. 



Wheeler ('loa, p. 393) lists a small wingless cricket, Myrm.ecophila 

 pergandei, as living with Formica pallide-fulva. These lick the sur- 

 faces of the ants, and seem to feed upon the products of the dry bath. 



Wheeler says ('05, p. 400) that the food of schaufussi appears to 

 be "largely of the excrement of Aphides and the carcasses of insects." 



Wheeler ('04, pp. 347-348) states that the nests are usually found 

 under a stone, and that Formica difficilis Emery var. consocians 

 Wheeler is a temporary parasite upon incerta, but "only during the 

 incipient stages of colony formation" (p. 358). This is a temporary 

 parasitism of one colony upon another, during which the parasite mul- 

 tiplies and becomes strong enough, at the expense of its host, to estab- 

 lish a new independent colony. This is what Wheeler calls a "tem- 

 porary social parasite, a true cuckoo ant, which sponges on another 

 species only so long as necessary in order to gain a successful start 

 in life." Schwarz ('90b, p. 247) records several species of beetles as 

 living with schaufussi. Not only does this species suffer from tempo- 

 rary ant-parasites, but it may be enslaved by some form of Amazon- 



