HYMENOPTERA. t>43 



(Fig. 768). The queens and workers are armed 

 with a sting, and the pupae are 

 naked. The following will serve 

 to illustrate this family : 



The Red-ant, Monomorium pJiar- 

 aonis (Mon-o-mo'ri-um phar a- 

 o'nis). — The most troublesome of 

 all ants that live in this country 

 is a minute yellow species that ^^.^SSStfi SSTS 

 frequently invades houses. Al- the front leff ' enlarged ' . 

 though this species is light yellow in color, it is commonly 

 known as the Red-ant. When these ants build their nests 

 within the walls or beneath the foundations of a house it is 

 almost impossible to dislodge them. By trapping and de- 

 stroying the workers their numbers can be lessened some- 

 what. But so long as the queens are undisturbed in their 

 nests the supply of workers will continue. 



The Shed-builder Ant, Cretnastogaster lincolata (Cre-mas- 

 to-gas'ter lin-e-o-la'ta). — This is a small ant, the workers 

 measuring from one eighth to three sixteenths inch in length. 

 It is usually yellowish brown, with a black abdomen ; but it 

 varies greatly in color. Its favorite nesting-place is under 

 stones or underneath and within the decayed matter of old 

 logs and stumps. Out of this material the ants sometimes 

 make a paper-like pulp with which they build a nest attached 

 to the side of a log, or even to the branches of a shrub at some 

 distance from the ground. Professor Atkinson describes 

 such a nest,* which was built several feet from the ground, 

 on a bush, and was eighteen inches long and twelve inches 

 in circumference ; it contained about one fourth pint of 

 adults, pupae, and larvae, and was doubtless the home of 

 the colony. But these ants often build small sheds, at 

 some distance from the nest, over the herds of Aphids or 

 scale-insects from which they obtain honey-dew. In these 



*American Naturalist, Aug. 1887. 



