30 
Psyche 
[September 
sumes the “pupal” posture, with appendages tightly withdrawn. The 
nest entrances are circular or slit-shaped and large enough to accom- 
modate only one or several ants at a time. Their appearance changes 
after each heavy rain, when excavation is renewed by the colony. 
Typically, the workers pile a circle of miscellaneous debris around 
the entrance holes. For example, the following particles were recorded 
around one chief entrance: dessicated fragments of Pheidole workers, 
small beetle elytron, unidentified piece of dry vegetable detritus, small 
tuft of cotton fibers. With each heavy rain the debris circle is washed 
away, but it is replaced within a few hours by the ants. 
Foraging is most intense during the middle hours of the day, from 
late morning to middle afternoon. The workers seem to be most 
active in hot sunshine. As many as 23 were counted outside the 
larger of the two nests at peak activity. Workers hunt singly and 
range widely from the nest; a few were encountered as far as six 
meters away. Orientation is apparently visual ; workers were fre- 
quently seen moving in nearly straight lines for considerable distances 
to and from the nests, and these could not be significantly disoriented 
by raking up soil in front of them. Venustula is principally, if not 
exclusively, a scavenger species. Following are records of food parti- 
cles being brought to the nest by workers, made at random during 
a period of several hours: 8 pieces of unidentifiable material, probably 
insect in origin (see below) ; one fragment of insect unidentified to 
group; 4 body parts of another ant species, identified in 3 cases to 
Pheidole ; 2 small beetles; one small spider; one cicadellid. In every 
case the insect material was either dried or, if fresh, crushed or 
mangled, obviously having been found in an inactive state by the 
venustula workers. No evidence of predation could be found. Work- 
ers were observed on many occasions to start away from the numer- 
ous small spiders, collembolans, cicadellids and other insects that 
swarmed in the nest vicinity. On the other hand, they readily accepted 
dead insects offered them. Insects too large to be carried back by a 
single worker were carved into manageable pieces by the foragers. 
The great majority of food particles brought to the nest ranged in 
size from slightly less than the volume of a venustula worker head to 
about three times this size. Workers also accepted sucrose solution 
readily. 
Tandem Running in C. venustula 
Workers of this species were never seen to lay or follow odor trails. 
Instead, a distinctive form of communication is employed during 
