1929] 
Tivo Neotropical Ants in the United States 
89 
TWO NEOTROPICAL ANTS ESTABLISHED IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 
By William Morton Wheeler. 
In a recent number of the Journal of Economic Ento- 
mology 1 Mr. M. R. Smith called attention to two Neotrop- 
ical ants, Iridomyrmex iniquus Mayr and Wasmannia 
auropunctata Roger, as occurring in the United States. The 
former was found inhabiting the greenhouse of the Univer- 
sity of Illinois, the latter was taken out of doors at Miami, 
Florida. 
The Iridomyrmex has been a denizen of the green- 
houses of the Bussey Institution for at least the past twenty 
years, as I noticed its occurrence soon after I moved to 
Boston in 1908. The specimens do not, however, belong to 
the typical form of the species but to the var. nigellus 
Emery, originally described from Costa Rica. They were 
probably introduced in soil with tropical plants some years 
prior to 1908. Although the green-houses have been fumi- 
gated on several occasions with calcium cyanide for the 
purpose of ridding them of plant pests, the ant has always 
managed to survive and is now as abundant as ever. Our 
gardener regards it as a nuisance. He has found it visiting 
the flowers of strawberries used in hybridizing experiments 
and suspects it of cutting out the anthers. Its principal food, 
however, is the honey-dew of Coccids, as Mr. Smith has 
observed. The small nests are made in the thin layer of 
soil on the benches under the pots and contain glistening 
white larvse at all seasons of the year. I have taken the 
males and winged females in March. 
Wasmannia auropunctata, a very common ant through- 
out Central and northern South America, the West Indies 
and the warmer portions of Mexico, is cited by Mr. Smith 
from Miami, Florida. That it is established in tropical 
Florida is indicated also by the fact that some five years 
Wol. 22, 1929 p. 241-243. 
