RELATIONS WITH OTHER ARTHROPODA. 71 
furnished to the ants in our artificial formicaries the wings were 
quickly amputated, although the termite itself was not always carried 
into the formicary, possibly because, in such cases, the ants were 
already bountifully supplied with animal food. 
The Rev. Albert Biever, of New Orleans, whose observations on 
the Argentine ant are elsewhere mentioned, is authority for the 
statement that these ants have in many cases entirely exterminated 
the bedbugs in the houses of many of the poorer people in New 
Orleans. 
Father Biever also states that in some sections of the city the 
"red bug," or chigger, has entirely disappeared with the advent of 
the ants. The junior author's observations in Audubon Park, New 
Orleans, are of similar nature, the chiggers being entirely absent 
where once they were a plague. At the same time the senior author 
still retains some very unpleasant memories of daily attacks by 
chiggers on premises in Baton Rouge which were heavily infested 
by the ants. We are thus unable, as yet, to state with certainty 
that the ants always destroy these annoying pests. 
The attitude of the Argentine ant toward other species of ants has 
already been discussed and its action in destroying other ants takes 
on either a beneficial or injurious aspect according to whether the 
annihilated ant is itself one of beneficial or injurious nature. 
SYMBIOTIC RELATIONS. 
The relationships which exist between the Argentine ant and those 
insects or other creatures, which it tolerates in its nests or in the 
near vicinity can not be considered as symbiosis, yet mention of these 
may be permissible at this point. Despite the hostility which these 
ants exhibit toward most insects which are not directly of service 
to them, a few instances have been noted in which other insects and 
crustaceans were, permitted to live in close proximity to their nests, 
or even within the nests themselves. 
Certain staphylinid beetles have frequently been found in decayed 
logs which were full of Argentine ants. Efforts have been made to 
keep some of these beetles in the artificial formicaries along with 
colonies of the ant under observation, but the results have been 
variable. In experiments of this kind made by the junior author 
the beetles were invariably set upon by the ants in the formicary 
and either killed or driven out. In similar experiments by the 
senior author no apparent attention was paid to the beetles, so far 
as could be observed, and they were tolerated in the formicary for a 
week or longer, after which they evidently left of their own accord. 
On August 17, 1909, a large ant nest was discovered in Baton 
Rouge under a large dry-goods box. About 20 specimens of " spittle 
