No. 411.] MALES OF SOME TEXAN ECITONS. 167 
It was interesting, therefore, to find that the males have the 
same pleasant odor as the females. We believe that this 
peculiar property acts as a powerful attraction to the workers, 
causing them to cling in great numbers to the bodies of the 
fertile sexes. Certainly no other ants with which we are 
familiar appear to be so fond of their queens and males. The 
workers seem never to tire of fondling and licking the latter. 
They lick even their large mandibles and the broad membranes 
of their wings, and when the males move about in the nest 
the workers ride on their backs and sides. Sometimes the 
males are loaded down so heavily with workers that they can 
neither walk nor fly. On such occasions they are often seen 
to relieve themselves of their too affectionate attendants by 
suddenly flirting their wings and tossing the workers to a 
distance. Even dead males are often fondled for hours. 
Although the males have beautifully developed strigils on their 
fore-tibiae, they do not appear to use them while in the nest, 
probably because the continual grooming which they receive 
from the workers makes attention to their own persons unneces- 
sary. In this respect the behavior of these male ants is in 
marked contrast with the behavior of the male Ponerinz 
(Pachycondyla harpax, for example). 
So far as could be observed the males made no use of their 
huge mandibles, structures which cannot fail to excite interest, 
because the mandibles of male ants are usually so small or 
even rudimental as compared with the mandibles of the workers 
and queens. The male ecitons were never seen to fight 
with one another or with the workers, nor did they take food 
of any form during their captivity. Since the female Eciton 
is wingless and sluggish, the mandibles of the males can hardly 
function as clasping organs. We are inclined, therefore, to 
regard them as secondary sexual characters belonging to the 
same category as the much larger mandibles of the male stag- 
beetles (Lucanidz) or the cephalic and pronotal horns of many 
male chafers (Scarabzide). It is not improbable, however, 
i . Ent. Soc. 
Habits of the Mexican Species of the Genus Eciton Latr., Trans. Am En 
i buted to the ants’ living in rotten 
(June, 1868), pp. 39-44). but erroneously attri 
wood. 
