A NEW MYRMECOPHILE FROM THE MUSHROOM 
GARDENS OF THE TEXAN LEAF- 
CUTTING ANT. 
WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER. 
On the 10th of April last, with the assistance of Messrs. A. 
L. Melander and C. T. Brues, I excavated a large nest of leat- 
cutting ants (Atta fervens Say), situated in a piece of wood- 
land a quarter of a mile from the University of Texas. The 
large burrows, nearly an inch in diameter, were found to ex- - 
tend down to a depth of from three to five feet and to open 
into large chambers, some of which were fully ten inches across 
and five to eight inches high. A few of these chambers were 
traversed by the roots of a large cedar, in the shade of which 
the ants had dug their formicary. Descending into the pit we 
had dug, and braving the attacks of tens of thousands of infuri- 
ated ants, we soon discovered the objects of our search — the - 
mushroom gardens heaped up on the floor, or, more rarely, 
enveloping, as aérial or “hanging” Lanes the roots that ic 
extended across the chambers. |. ; 
The gardens were hastily sacs —I say pee because 
putting one's hand into one of these chambers is like grasping _ 
the handles of an electric machine, so valiantly do the ants ; D 
defend their property. T he material, reeking with an odor. we 
. like that of stale honey, was placed in large glass j jars. These 
: had to serve as artificial nests, as nests of the Lubbock and 
Janet pattern were obviously not suited to these aberrant ants. 
By the following day the ants had complere | rebuilt their 
gardens on the bottoms of the jars. _ 
These gardens proved to be very milar to those so really 
described and figured by Móller? for several South American 
Species of Atta (A. discigera Mayr., 2 4. hystrix Latr., A. coronata 
1 Contributions from the Zoilogical Laboratory dog University of Texas, No. 9. 
* Die on. i da ute Fischer, 1895, 
2 
ie Bs 2c 2 
