46 
Psyche 
[Mar. 
forming the immediate roof. The artificial nests were 
set up on the evening of collection (June 10). A few 
males also developed from the larvae taken with the 
nests, and these pupated during early August and de- 
veloped into adults in late August. All the males es- 
caped both nests through cracks during one night in 
early September, presumably on nuptial flight, since they 
had not previously attempted to leave the brood cham- 
ber which the ants constructed at the end of each nest 
from small particles of earth that had been scattered 
over the nest floor. These chambers were an almost 
exact replica of the ones found under the stones, open at 
the top and with a small passage at one side. 
The queens never left the brood except on the occasion 
of the introduction of the first grass seed, when all the 
workers and one queen left the brood and examined the 
seeds. The queen returned after a brief period and re- 
sumed her watch over the brood. 
In studying various Myrmecina in the Wheeler Collec- 
tion, I have seen other forms of very doubtful validity. 
All these are presently considered subspecies of grami- 
nicola, under which Wheeler placed them in his original 
descriptions. Texana is supposed to differ from ameri- 
cana by its “scotch grain’ ’ shagreening of the first gas- 
tric segment. However, specimens from many localities 
in the states east of the Mississippi also possess this 
characteristic to a varying degree, and specimens from 
North Carolina and northern Ohio show much heavier 
sculpture of this type than do the texana types. The 
texana types, however, do seem to differ slightly from 
americana in having a much less definitely longitudinal 
orientation to the rugulation of the head, with the longi- 
tudinal rugae having many prominent transverse spurs 
and branches. Other Texan specimens I have seen all 
belong to the typical americana, including a specimen 
identified by Wheeler as texana. Since sculpture ap- 
pears to be one of the several very unstable features of 
Holarctic Myrmecina, I believe that further collecting in 
Texas and Mexico will show that this form is synonymous 
with americana. 
