160 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vor. XXXV. 
we wish to call attention to the discovery of the males of 
E. opacithorax* Emery and of E. schmitti Emery? The male 
of the latter species, together with the female described in the 
senior author's former paper, completes the series of sexual 
phases of a species belonging to another natural group of 
ecitons (subgenus Acamatus Emery), the workers of which 
have smooth claws. 
A male Eciton found dead in a spider's web, Oct. 3, 1899, 
by Mr. C. T. Brues was referred by the senior author to 
E. schmitti, mainly on account of its coloration, but it was not 
till October 13 of this year that it was possible to obtain posi- 
tive proof of the truth of this conjecture. Late in the after- 
noon of the latter date Mr. A. L. Melander, Mr. C. T. Brues, 
and the senior author were collecting insects near Mt. Bonnel, 
a few miles from Austin, when Mr. Brues saw a winged ant 
perched on a large flat stone beneath a shrub (Zzsem/Zardtia 
amorphoides). lt was at once recognized as the Eciton of the 
spider's web. On drawing near, two or three other specimens 
were seen moving about among a lot of workers of E. schmitti 
which were issuing from a hole in the soil about the roots of 
the Eisenhardtia and appeared to be on the point of starting 
on one of the sorties so characteristic of these ants and their 
congeners. We raised the stone and found beneath it a flour- 
ishing colony of Æ. schmitti, comprising no less than a hundred 
of the huge (Ze, when compared with the workers) winged 
males. Many of these were literally covered with workers and 
1 Emery (Nuovi Studi, etc., /oc. cit., p. 15) is now inclined to regard the former 
species, menm described by him as a subspecies of Æ. californicum Mayr, as a 
distinct species. 
- acing of the species designated as E. sumichrasti in the senior author's 
former paper have been examined by Professor Emery, who pronounces the spe- 
cles to be the rien allied Æ. schmitti Emery. The senior author has since 
taken the true Æ. sumichrasti in Mexico Dirt Morelos) and is satisfied 
that Fuse Emery's identification is corre On seeing the males of Æ 
schmitti, Professor Emery was inclined to d them as belonging to Labida: 
nigrescens Cresson. If this is true Emery’s name of the species must be relegated 
e the synonomy. But some of these males were sent to Mr. Fox for comparison 
with Cresson's types and were pronounced to be different, being *too hairy for 
seins: which is entirely brownish. The first segment of wigrescens is shorter 
the wings light fuscous.” This has induced us to retain Emery's name of 
e species for the present. 
