70 
THE ARGENTINE ANT. 
course of three minutes two Argentine workers had found their way 
into the jar and each had captured an adult midge. Other workers 
soon followed. In about 15 minutes fully three-fourths of the flies 
had been captured and at the end of 30 minutes all had been either 
captured and carried away or were in possession of workers. The 
first midges captured were quickly carried to the ants' nest, but pres- 
ently the workers seemed less appreciative of their prizes and spent 
much more time in playing with them, although in but few cases were 
the midges relinquished. Occasionally a midge would succeed in 
taking flight after a worker had taken hold of it; in such cases worker 
and midge tumbled to the floor, but without the midge being released. 
That the workers were unable to see the midges was made evident 
many times over in this experi- 
ment, for workers repeatedly passed 
within one-sixteenth of an inch of 
their prey without even changing 
the direction of travel. Only when 
the worker touched the midge with 
her antennas could she locate the 
latter. 
Later on it was found that the 
ants thoroughly patrolled the sor- 
ghum heads in the field and not only 
captured the midges as they were 
emerging from their pupal cases be- 
tween the glumes but also removed 
the pupae themselves. That this 
ant is by far the most important 
natural enemy of the sorghum midge 
in southern Louisiana there can be 
no doubt, 1 but its services in this 
regard do not begin to expiate its 
many other crimes. 
The Argentine ant is a persistent enemy of the white ants, or 
termites, and will capture and kill them at every opportunity. Espe- 
cially during the mating season of the termites every male and queen 
that falls to earth is quickly set upon by the ants. The latter cut 
off their wings, and frequently also legs and antennae, and then bear 
them away, still alive, to their nests. Wherever colonies of termites 
are accidentally exposed the ants soon destroy them, carrying away 
all stages. Not infrequently one finds the Argentine ant colonies 
domiciled in the old termite galleries in logs and timbers, the assump- 
tion being that the ants had first destroyed the termite colonies and 
then taken possession of their domiciles. When winged termites were 
Fig. 10.— Argentine ant removing the pupa of a 
sorghum midge from between the glumes of a 
sorghum head. (Original.) 
Dean, Harper, Bui. 85, Part IV, rev., Bur. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr., p. 57, 1911. 
