12 THE AKGENTINE ANT. 
In 1908 Prof. C. P. Lounsbury recognized this ant in Cape Town, 
South Africa, where it had already become a household nuisance and 
had displayed its usual r61e of attending mealy-bugs and other insects. 
The general belief in Cape Town, according to Prof. Lounsbury, was 
that the pest had been introduced through the medium of forage, 
large quantities of which were imported from Argentina during the 
Boer War (1900-1902) and stored in Cape Town. 
In July, 1910, the late Edwyn C. Reed, of Concepcion, Chile, in a ' 
letter to the senior author, reported the occurrence of the species in 
that country in large numbers. 
In 1908 ants collected by Mr. J. Chester Bradley, of the University < 
of California, were identified as 1. Tiumilis by Dr. W. M. Wheeler. ^ 
Immediately following this discovery Prof. C. W. Woodworth, of the 
California Agricultural Experiment Station, visited the authors' I 
laboratory at Baton Rouge, La., for the purpose of becoming familiar 
with the methods used in studying the insect and with the information 
which had been gathered concerning it up to that time. On his i 
return to California he published a brief circular * concerning its , 
occurrence in that State. 
From the foregoing it is readily seen that during the past few years " 
this ant has thoroughly established itself, as a nuisance of the first 
order, on four continents, and, owing to the readiness with which it is 
disseminated through the ordinary channels of commerce, there 
seems little reason for supposing that it will not eventually invade ^ 
all of the semitropical countries of the globe. 
INTRODUCTION INTO LOUISIANA. 
As with most imported species, the original time and place at which 
a foothold was obtained by the Argentine ant in Louisiana must be 
largely conjectural. However, we are able to conjecture with rather 
strong circumstantial evidence to guide us. Not only does the tes- 
timony of inhabitants indicate New Orleans to be the original starting 
point of this species in the South, but its enormous numbers and the \H 
extent to which it has exterminated other species of Formicidse con- J 
firm the opinion that it has been in New Orleans longer than else- 
where. 1 
Mr. Edward Foster, 2 of the editorial staff of the New Orleans i 
Daily Picayune, has given us the earliest record of its occurrence in I 
New Orleans. He noted it in 1891 in St. Charles Avenue, 9 <j 
squares from the river and 12 from Canal Street. It was then I 
1 The Argentine ant in California. Cal. Agr. Exp. Sta ; , Cir. 38, August, 1908. 
2 The introduction of Iridomyrmex humilis into New Orleans. Journ. Econ. Ent., vol. 1, No. 5. pp. " 
289-293, October, 1908. 
