568 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.  [Vou. XXXIV. 
The complete absence of any traces of wings in the female 
Dorylides also suggests many interesting problems for future 
investigation. The females must be fertilized either within 
the nest or during the organized marauding expeditions so 
characteristic of these ants. 
Both the females in my possession were introduced at differ- 
ent times into an artificial nest (Janet pattern) of workers 
taken from an entirely different locality on Shoal Creek. They 
were very eagerly adopted and at once began to lay eggs. 
Female A laid very few, but 9 2, as was to be expected, pro- 
duced a great number. Some of the workers were always 
clinging, with signs of great agitation, to the tip of her abdo- 
men, and as soon as an egg would appear on the shovel-like 
hypopygium it would be seized and carried to another part of 
the nest. To this same spot other eggs were brought for some 
` time. Later, however, they were distributed in little packets 
and carried continually in the mandibles of the workers as these 
marched round and round the nest in files, two and three 
abreast. The eggs are of the same shape and color as those 
of Formica fusca, but smaller. 
During the past year I have seen three species of Eciton in 
the vicinity of Austin: Æ. omnivorum Ol (=cæcum Latr.), 
E. sumichrasti Norton, and what I take to be Æ. californicum 
Mayr. The last was taken only once by one of my students. 
Small colonies of Æ. omnivorum are not uncommon under 
stones, where they make burrows about a centimeter in diam- 
eter, usually leading directly into the ground. When the stone 
is lifted the ants show the greatest presence of mind (sz venia 
verbo 7). They do not run about aimlessly and in disorder like 
other ants, but, notwithstanding the fact that they are abso- 
lutely blind, they at once organize themselves into columns 
and file down their burrows. The habits of this species thus 
appear to be the same as those of Æ. carolinense recently de- 
scribed by Forel (doc. cit., p. 444): 
Leur faculté instinctive de se concerter et de former des files dépasse abso- 
lument tout ce que j'ai vu chez d'autres fourmis. Vous jetez une poignée 
d’Eciton avec leur larves sur un terrain absolument étranger. En pareille 
circonstance, ou les autres fourmis s'éparpillent en désordre et ont belit 
