50 
Psyche 
[June-September 
that following exposure to comparable amounts of the 
evaporated mandibular-gland secretion. 
Summary 
The secretion of the mandibular gland of the myrmicine 
ant Pogonomyrmex badius (Latreille) contains an un- 
identified component that acts as a releaser of both alarm 
and digging behavior. This substance is highly volatile, so 
that the contents of a single mandibular gland reservoir 
can act through the air over at least five centimeters; at 
26° C alarm behavior was effected over this distance within 
four to nine seconds under the experimental conditions 
used. Highly excited workers discharge the secretion during 
the characteristic looping movements of alarm behavior 
and in so doing tend to set up waves of excitement that 
spread among other workers through the nest galleries 
and over the nest surface. Prolonged exposure to the 
secretion induces characteristic digging behavior, which 
may be directional if the stimulus is confined to a single 
locus. The hypothesis is advanced that directional digging 
thus induced functions at least in part to expedite “rescue” 
work following nest cave-ins. Similar alarm and digging 
behavior can be induced through the air by some other 
relatively volatile agents, e.g., formic acid, n-butyric acid, 
and ethylamine. 
References Cited 
Carthy, J. D. 
1951. The orientation of two allied species of British ants. 
I. Visual direction finding in Acanthomyops ( Lasius ) niger. Be- 
haviour, 3:275-303. 
Goetsch, W. 
1951. Vergleichende Biologie dev Insect-Staaten. Akad. Verlagsges. 
Portig K.-G. (Leipzig). 479 pp. 
Janet, C. 
1898. Etudes sur les fourmis, les guepes et les abeilles. 
17. Systeme glandulaire tegumentaire de la Myrmica rubra. 
Carre et Naud (Paris). 28 pp, 9 figs. 
Sudd, J. H. 
1957. A response of worker ants to dead ants of their own species. 
Nature, 179 : 431-432. 
