164 
Psyche 
[June-August 
THE OCCURRENCE OF THE PAVEMENT ANT ( TETRA - 
MORIUM CJESPITUM L.) IN BOSTON. 
By William Morton Wheeler. 
The common European pavement ant ( Tetramorium cces- 
pitum L.) must have been introduced into the United States 
during colonial days, if Marlatt is correct in supposing that it is 
the ant referred to by Kalm in his “Travels” in 1748 as infesting 
houses in Philadelphia. It has certainly been established for 
many years in the vicinity of Philadelphia, New York City, in 
New Jersey, on Long Island and in Maryland (Washington and 
vicinity). I have often found it in Westchester County, N. Y., 
nesting under stones and occasionally storing small seeds in the 
chambers of its nests just as it does in various parts of Europe 
and North Africa. (See Donisthorpe’s “British Ants, 2nd Ed. 
1927, p. 195). As this ant is very common and prolific over an 
enormous area in the Old World, from England to Japan, and is 
represented by certain subspecies as far south as British East 
Africa and Cape Colony, it is difficult to understand why its 
spread in the United States has been so slow. This may be due, 
perhaps, either to the animosity of our native ants or to the 
enmity which seems so commonly to exist between any two cces- 
pitum colonies as to lead to frequent deadly battles between 
them. 
Apart from a few specimens taken in Springfield, Mass, 
and sent me by Mr. George Dimmock, I have seen no record of 
the pavement ant from New England. More than twenty years 
ago I found it abundant at White Plains and Mamaroneck, 
N. Y., near the Connecticut boundary. Since that time it may 
have entered the southern portion of that state and have moved 
up the valley of the Connecticut River as far as Springfield. 
On two successive evenings, those of Jan. 19 and 20, 1927, 
which were very mild and followed a cold spell, I was surprised 
to find the heated and electric-lighted vestibule of an apartment 
building (101 Chestnut St.) in the heart of Boston, alive with 
ants celebrating their marriage flight. They were soon recog- 
nized as males and females of T. ccespitum, and had issued from 
