1956] 
Creighton — Ephebomyrmex 
63 
which adhere to the newly emerged males and females 
give them the appearance of a person peeling after a 
bad case of sun burn. Wheeler calls these ants “timid” 
but perhaps it would be better to describe them as docile. 
They do not seem particularly frightened when they are 
disturbed and they make little effort to escape and none 
to sting. The writer has picked up hundreds of speci- 
mens and has yet to be stung by one of them. This seems 
rather curious, since these ants are provided with a power- 
ful sting, despite their small size. The sting is fully two- 
thirds as long as that of the smaller workers of barbatus, 
a species which stings atrociously, and certainly the pre- 
sumption would be that imberbiculus and pima could use 
their stings effectively if they chose to do so. These ants 
forage at least ten months a year and probably, in a mild 
winter, all year long. When foraging they move at a 
slow but steady gait. They usually forage singly. 
There follows the description of the female of imber- 
biculus , which has not hitherto been described or figured: 
The features cited in this description are those which could 
not be shown in the figure: 
Fig. 1. Female of Pogonomyrmex ( Ephebomyrmex ) imberbiculus 
Wheeler. 
Length of head (mandibles excluded) 1.2 mm.; length of 
thorax 1.75 mm.; overall length 4.5- 5 mm. The sides 
of the head behind the eyes slightly narrowing toward 
the occiput. Occipital border slightly concave in the 
middle. Middle of the clypeus scarcely projecting beyond 
the two prominent teeth which stand in front of the 
