92 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



lively enough to .sting. On one of the Government vessels, which had 

 visited Guam in January, were found some of these wasps after her 

 arrival in San Francisco. They had sought an asylum while she lay 

 in the harbor of Apra, and remained hibernating during the return 

 voyage of the vessel. Another species found on board was a solitary 

 wasp, a species of Odynerus or an allied genus. The mother had made 

 a series of mud-like cells in a pamphlet, which had remained rolled up, 

 and in each cell she had deposited a small green caterpillar, the larva 

 of one of the smaller moths of the island, laying an egg and sealing 

 up the cell and then making another cell on top of it and repeating the 

 operation. In Guam these cell-making wasps are very common. 

 Every hole in the wall of a house is plastered up by them; rolled-up 

 magazines or newspapers lying on the table, bamboos, empty car- 

 tridge cases, even gun barrels— everything which is tubular in shape 

 is filled by their cells. Their sting stupefies the caterpillar, but does 

 not kill it, and their larvae in eating their animal food are much more 

 active than those of pollen-feeding species, turning their heads from 

 side to side and living for some time after having been taken from 

 their cells. 



Among the ants ("otdot," or "utdut") there is one {Solenopsis sp. ?) 

 of which the workers are very small and sting severely. The females 

 are considerabl} T larger. These little creatures, when out on foraging 

 expeditions, travel in lines and sting every animal that crosses their 

 path. Sometimes young chickens are killed by them. The}^ are com- 

 mon in houses, and it is not unusual on turning in at night to find a 

 line of them crossing the bed. In another species belonging to the 

 same family (Myrmicidae), probably of the genus Pheidole, there is a 

 form with enormously developed cubical heads and strong jaws, called 

 "soldiers." It is very interesting to watch these insects swarm. They 

 come out of the ground in great numbers. Both the males and females 

 are winged. The females are very much larger than the males and the 

 workers are smaller. The soldiers, which are very conspicuous, are 

 sometimes called "workers major,'" and the common small-headed form 

 "workers minor." Soon after swarming the sexes mate. They then 

 lose their wings and establish new colonies. Another stinging ant, 

 much larger and of a black color, is called "hating." 



Leaf -cutting ants, the pests of many tropical countries, are happity 

 absent from Guam. Consequently, gardens do not need to be pro- 

 tected from them, and the green turf and luxuriant herbage of the 

 island offers a most pleasing contrast to the bare earth and canal- 

 protected gardens of Central America and Brazil. 



The diptera are represented by several species of flies and at least 

 two mosquitoes. It has been asserted that the early natives blamed 

 the Spaniards for having introduced both flies and mosquitoes to 



