14 
THE ARGENTINE ANT. 
passed back and foTth between that city and Brazilian ports. This 
view is supported by the fact that large numbers of the ants were 
first noticed in the vicinity of the wharves where these ships unloaded 
their cargoes and also by the fact that these ships have been the only 
means of regular communication between New Orleans and the 
countries in which the ant is indigenous. That this and other species 
of ants are actually transported on ocean-going vessels has been fre- 
quently observed. Thus in July, 1911, the senior author, while a 
passenger on one of the largest coastwise vessels between New Or- 
leans and New York, found colonies of this same ant occupying pro- 
tected situations in the woodwork of the steamer. Dr. W. M. Wheeler 
also writes us that while returning from Guatemala aboard a fruit 
Fig. 1. — Map of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, showing counties in the Southern States which are 
infested by the Argentine ant, according to the authors' records. (Original.) 
steamer in January, 1912, he found it infested with another common 
ant, Prenolepis longicornis Fab. 
PRESENT DISTRIBUTION IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
The area in the Southern States within which the Argentine ant 
is known to occur at present extends from Montgomery, Ala., to 
Lake Charles, La., a distance of about 380 miles east and west; and 
from Delta, La., to the mouth of the Mississippi River, a distance of 
about 250 miles north and south. (See fig. 1.) This section is not 
uniformly infested, but contains a great number of infested areas of 
more or less importance, ranging in size from many square miles of 
