VEROMESSOR LOBOGNATHUS IN NORTH DAKOTA 
(HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE) 1 
By George C. Wheeler and Jeanette Wheeler 
Department of Biology, University of North Dakota 
In our field studies on the ants of North Dakota we have 
been in the habit of identifying our collections of Pogo- 
nomyrmex by casual inspection with the unaided eye. This 
seemed adequate, since there is only one species of this 
genus in the state and since we knew of no other ant 
that could be confused with Pogonomyrmex. But after 
reading Gregg’s interesting paper 2 on V eromessor we hur- 
riedly re-examined our material under magnification. (See 
Fig. 1.). Among a hundred nest-series of putative Pogo- 
nomyrmex occidentalis (Cresson) we discovered one of 
V eromessor lobognathus (Andrews). This is only the 
sixth collection of this species, but it extends the range 
northward by 450 miles. Since almost nothing is known 
about its habits and ecology we hoped that our field notes 
would contribute something, but we found them disap- 
pointingly laconic: ‘'Under flat rock 32 x23 x 2" lying on 
north wall of east-west valley, atypical." The word 
"atypical" is significant for it shows that at the time we 
regarded the ant as P. occidentalis and a Pogonomyrmex 
nest under a rock was something we had never seen. Our 
error was not detected until the autumn or winter of 1955. 
Consequently we could not return to the site until the 
summer of 1956. By that time southwestern North Dakota 
had suffered a year of drouth and ants (except P. occi- 
dentalis) were scarce and hard to find. We revisited the 
same hillside and literally "left no stone unturned" ; in 
fact we turned them over twice — the second time after 
the late summer rains. But we found no trace of the 
1 This study was aided by a grant from the Louis W. and Maud Hill 
Foundation. 
2 Gregg, R. E. 1955. The rediscovery of Veromessor lobognathus 
(Andrews) (Hymenoptera : Formicidae). Psyche 62: 45-52. 
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