Sympatry of The Ants Conomyrma bicolor (Wheeler) 
and C. PYRAMICA (Roger). — In his revision of the North 
American ant fauna Creighton (1950, Bull. Mus. Comp. 
Zool. Harvard, 104: 349) treats C. bicolor as a sympatric 
subspecies of C. pyramica, on the grounds that the two 
forms are separated ecologically where they occur in prox- 
imity. Kusnezov (1952, Acta Zool. Lilloana, 10: 430), on 
the basis of purely morphological criteria, raises bicolor 
to species rank, even placing it in a separate subgenus, 
Biconomyrma. A recent re-examination of the pyramica 
group has cast some doubt on Kusnezov’s decision, how- 
ever, since it has been found that bicolor does not possess 
the characters reputed to exist in the worker alitrunk of 
Biconomyrma species. It is therefore noteworthy that 
there is at least one locality where the two forms occur 
in intimate sympatry while remaining distinct with respect 
to characters in worker color and size. In Kingman, Mo- 
have Co., Arizona, during July, 1952, the author found four 
places inside the town limits where bicolor and pyramica 
nests were located within several feet of each other. The 
pyramica nests were outnumbered by those of bicolor by a 
ratio of two or three to one and were restricted to the 
best watered and shaded spots. They could be distinguished 
easily by their smaller entrance holes and smaller, more 
regularly formed craters. No difference in periodicity of 
foraging was detected. In well shaded spots both species 
were active to some extent throughout the day, but were 
inactive and absent from the upper parts of the nests in 
exposed, sunny spots from about 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 
These data suggest that bicolor and pyramica are distinct 
biological species. — E. O. Wilson, Biological Laboratories, 
Harvard University. 
