No. 411.] MALES OF SOME TEXAN ECITONS. 169 
of the singular observations published by W. Miiller,* which, 
as recorded, tend to show that the larvae of Eciton are of 
two forms, one like those subsequently described by myself, 
the other furnished with setigerous tubercles, like the larvae of 
the Ponerinæ. When, during the past autumn at the Munich 
meeting of German naturalists, I presented the results of my 
observations, Forel took exception to them, on the ground that 
the dimorphism observed by W. Müller in Eciton went to 
prove that the cutaneous tubercles could not be peculiar to the 
larvae of the Ponerinz. I was thus compelled to examine 
Miiller’s observations, for the purpose of ascertaining whether 
or not Forel’s conclusion and those of the author himself were 
legitimate. 
« Among many thousand typical larvee of Eciton, Müller 
observed a very few much smaller larvæ, covered with tuber- 
cles and some dark-colored cocoons containing similar larvae 
and pupz and differing from those of the ecitons. The tuber- 
culate larvae were of different sizes and forms, and most of the 
dark-colored cocoons woven by these larvee measured 8 mm., 
but some of them only 6 mm., in length. As it was not known 
at that time that the larvae of the Ponerine are of this struc- 
ture, he could not suppose that he was dealing with larve 
stolen from the nest of other ants. Müller and Forel, who 
examined the material collected, thought there was an evident 
connection between the two observations to be discussed, a 
fallacious connection which, nevertheless, as an element of 
suggestion, has dominated the whole thought of these authors. 
«In the midst of the mass of worker ecitons Müller found 
a deálated and damaged specimen of the insect then known as 
Labidus burchelli, the male of the Eciton which was the sub- 
ject of his observations. On examining a pupa taken from one 
of the dark-colored cocoons and hence derived from a tuber- 
culate larva, Forel observed that, whereas the form of the head 
and thorax was that of a worker ant, the tip of the abdomen 
presented appendages, which, though poorly preserved in the 
specimen studied, recalled by their position and configuration 
1 Beobachtungen an Wanderameisen (Zciton hamatum) in Kosmos, 10. Jahrg., 
Bd. xviii (1886), pp. 81—93- 
