No. 422.] NEW AGRICULTURAL ANT FROM TEXAS. 91 
to be fed by regurgitation. I deem it probable, therefore, that 
the larvz of moltfactens are also fed like those of zmberbiculus 
by what we may call the direct method, to distinguish it from 
the indirect method adopted by the Camponotinæ. In the 
Ponerinz and many Myrmicinz, including Pogonomyrmex, the 
direct appears to be the prevailing, if not the exclusive, method. 
In the Camponotinz, on the other hand, the indirect method 
prevails, since at a given time only a comparatively small num- 
ber of ants function as caterers for the whole colony and dis- 
tribute the food by 
regurgitation to the 
larvae and the other 
ants. 
It may not be 
altogether out of 
place in this paper 
to record a few other 
observations on P. molifaciens, inasmuch as this form has 
been singled out among all the known members of the genus 
as presenting certain remarkable instincts. Lincecum is 
responsible for the myth that this Pogonomyrmex sows a 
certain species of grass, the “ant rice” (Aristida oligantha), 
protects it from harm and frees it from weeds while it is grow- 
ing, for the purpose of reaping the grain. This notion, which 
even the Texan schoolboy has come to regard as a joke, has 
been widely cited, largely because the great Darwin stood spon- 
sor for its publication in the Journal of the Linnean Society 
(62). McCook, after spending a few weeks in Texas observing 
P. molifaciens and recording his observations in a book of 310 
pages ('79), failed to obtain any evidence either for or against 
the Lincecum myth. He merely succeeded in extending its 
vogue by admitting its plausibility. 
1 Not only have able myrmecologists like Forel (99, p. 63) pem deceived by 
the accounts of Lincecum and McCook into assuming the existence of a kind of 
symbiotic relation between the Pogonomyrmex and the “ant rice," but this — 
now in its fortieth year, still flourishes in the newspapers. n M grows d 
CH. pies of May 19, 1901: “ Many species of ants € pn 
apparently cultivate many varieties of foodstuffs. The trimmer ants 

Fic. 4. — Pogonomyrmex barbatus F. Smith (typical). 
Worker. 
