62 
Psyche 
[June 
appeared with similar but smaller fruiting pods. There 
was no nesting site available here for the ants. 
The Nest 
The original position of the nest was just within the 
trunk, at the place where a large branch had been sawed 
off on the north side some 12 years previously and at an 
elevation of three meters. In the drying of the cut surface 
an irregular crack had developed that was about 10 mm 
wide and a few centimeters long. Through this crack the 
ants gained entrance to an otherwise hard and sound trunk. 
The ants gnawed a series of irregular tunnels and 
chambers in the tough wood, the chambers closest to the 
outside being some 2-3 cm in, the farthest about 30 cm. 
There was no regularity in the disposition or size of the 
tunnels and chambers, the latter being simply enlargements 
of the former. The nest resembled that of Camponotus 
herculeanus except that the alternating hard and soft 
layers of wood in northern trees were absent from this 
tropical wood and there were therefore no concentric 
excavations. 
After the nest was excavated on March 3, April 27 
and June 21 the surviving ants took refuge in the inner- 
most tunnels. The wood here was so hard and tough that 
the ants eventually left it and for a month there was no 
indication of another site. Finally, on July 28, a worker 
was detected shortly before sunset crawling to an incon- 
spicuous hole in a small branch at a point 10 meters distant 
from the trunk and three meters above the ground. The 
branch was 6 cm in diameter. A mass of ants of all castes 
was found in a cavity here that was about 20 x 2-4 cm. 
The opposite end of the cavity terminated in a small tunnel 
a few millimeters in diameter which was too small for a 
male or female ant but suitable for a small worker. The 
ants had either made this cavity or enlarged that of an 
Azteca colony. 
During the next two months eleven more auxiliary nests 
were found. The size varied considerably and all were in 
dead stubs of branches or in live wood. The mandibles 
of the workers were small and much time was required 
