168 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXV. 
that when the mystery which still envelops the origin of the 
female Eciton and the time and place of her impregnation has 
been dispelled, the mandibles of the male may be found to 
have some as yet unsuspected function. 
During the morning hours the ecitons remained very quiet, 
hanging in clusters in an angle formed by the soil and the 
glass of the jar, or between the glass and the earth of the 
Lubbock nest after being removed to the latter. The males, 
concealed beneath the mass of workers, were usually huddled 
together, with their heads hidden in holes in the earth and 
their abdomens and the tips of their wings projecting. They 
appeared to be sleeping. Between one and two o'clock in 
the afternoon the whole colony awoke. The males would 
begin to climb the glass sides of the jar in perfectly perpen- 
dicular paths, falling to the bottom from time to time but 
again persistently ascending. The workers would often file 
up the: sides of the jar with the males walking at the same 
rate of speed in their ranks. The activity of the colony 
appeared to reach its height between five and seven o'clock, 
and then to subside as the night came on, when the colony 
again clustered with the males in its midst. Even a lamp 
kept in the room with the nest, if not too near it, failed to 
interrupt their slumbers. This striking rhythm of alternating 
activity and rest was observed on each of the nine days during 
which the males lived, and was continued by the workers 
alone for some weeks afterwards. 
The numerous males of FE. schmitti and E. opactthorax taken 
in the two nests above described showed relatively little varia- 
tion in size and coloration. They were all equally fresh and 
active and had evidently all hatched but a short time before the 
nests were discovered. This induces us to add some remarks 
concerning the supposed dimorphism of the males of Eciton, if 
only for the purpose of corroborating Emery's statements on 
this subject. For the sake of bringing the matter clearly 
before the reader, we translate most of Emery's remarks. 
“In my memoir on the larvz of ants?] omitted a discussion 
! Nuovi Studi sul Genere Eciton, Zoc. cit., pp. 4, 5. 
? Intorno alle larve di alcune F. ormiche. 
