1927 ] The Slave Raids of Harpagoxenus americanus 
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THE SLAVE-RAIDS OF HARPAGOXENUS AMERICANUS. 
By W. S. Creighton, 
Bussey Institution, Harvard University. 
The observations here recorded were made at the American 
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Museum of Natural History’s Station for the Study of Insects 
at Tuxedo, N. Y. Through the courtesy of Mr. Frank Johnson 
of New York City the author was enabled to spend the summer 
of 1926 at the Station. To Mr. Johnson and to Dr. Frank E. 
Lutz, whose encouragement and support greatly facilitated this 
work, the writer wishes to express his sincere thanks. After the 
manuscript had been prepared it was learned that Dr.Sturtevant 
had made a number of observations about the same time on 
Harpagoxenus colonies found in New Jersey. I have had the 
opportunity of reading Dr. Sturtevant’s manuscript and his 
results and mine amplify each other with very little repetition. 
In several cases observations have confirmed hypotheses in a 
remarkable manner, all the more striking in that neither of us 
knew of the work of the other. Dr. Wheeler has, therefore, 
suggested the simultaneous publication of the articles as they 
were originally prepared. 
In 1893 Pergande found, near Washington, D. C., a mixed 
nest composed of Leptothorax curvispinosus (Fig. 1. B), and an 
unknown ant to which Mayr subsequently gave the name Tomo- 
gnathus americanus (Fig. 1, A). Later the generic name was 
changed by Forel to Harpagoxenus , the specific name remaining 
unaltered. Besides the type specimens of H. americanus Mayr 
had a few others accidentally taken by Schmitt while collecting 
beetles at Beatty, Pa. During the next twelve years there are 
no further records of this ant until, in 1905, Dr. Wheeler dis- 
covered, near Bronxville, N. Y., three small mixed colonies of 
H. americanus and L. curvispinosus nesting in hollow elder twigs. 
The next observation on this rare insect came twenty years later 
when Sturtevant, during the summer of 1925, found on Naushon 
Island (Woods Hole) a mixed Harpagoxenus — L. curvispinosus 
colony inhabiting an oak gall. 
