8 BULLETIN 647, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
fruits of the State are produced in these three parishes, so the above 
figures give an accurate idea of the proportion of the orange groves 
that come under the influence of the ants. The ant has not yet 
gained an entrance into any of the seedling orange groves of Cam- 
eron Parish. 
CALIFORNIA. 
In California the ants are present in a considerable number of 
the groves at Riverside, Corona, Uplands, Duarte, Monrovia, Sierra 
Madre, Alhambra, San Marino, South Pasadena, Pasadena, and 
Altadena. They have gained a foothold in one spot in the town of 
Pomona, but have not yet been reported in any of the orange groves. 
When they do arrive there, however, they undoubtedly will bring the 
mealybug into great prominence, as a minor outbreak occurred dur- 
ing the summer of 1916, and conditions are the same there as at 
Alhambra. They are distributed pretty thoroughly throughout 
parts of the cities of Los Angeles and Pasadena. In Ventura County 
they infest some of the groves at Santa Paula and occur in several 
groves in one block at Fillmore. They have every appearance of 
having been introduced into this section within the last three or four 
years. In San Diego County they have not yet gained a foothold in 
any of the orange groves, but they have been introduced into the 
fair grounds, in the city of San Diego, where they overrun many of 
the ornamental plants both out of doors and in the conservatories. 
FEEDING HABITS OF THE ANT. 
The damage to orange trees by the Argentine ant must be either 
direct, through habits of feeding upon plant parts and tunneling 
and nesting about the roots, or indirect, through its relations with 
harmful insects and as a carrier of citrus diseases, or both. Not 
only were the nature and amount of the injury inflicted by the ant 
learned through a study of its foraging and nesting habits, but a 
successful method of controlling it as well. 
It is not the intention here to specify all the foods which the ant 
has been observed to utilize, or to describe its well-known ravages 
into household supplies, but rather to describe its feeding habits in 
the orange groves and particularly in their bearing upon the orange 
trees. The ant is omnivorous, and though much of its food is de- 
rived from plant sources, it exhibits a distinct need for animal food 
and utilizes not only the flesh but also the excreta and other effluvia 
of animals as well. Its need for flesh food is so marked that in the 
artificial formicary, when flesh food is not furnished, it almost al- 
ways will feed to some extent upon its own young. 
