1975 ] Buren, Nickerson and Thompson — Conomyrma 
307 
Reactions between the 2 species in the field are entirely inimical 
(observations of the writers). When workers of the 2 species meet 
(in accidental meetings as far as we can judge), the C. ins ana 
worker usually holds its ground and may open its mandibles, while 
the C. flavopecta worker almost immediately breaks contact and runs 
rapidly and erratically taway. We term this reaction “panic retreat” 
paralleling the terminology of Wilson and Regnier (1971) who 
distinguish between “panic alarm” and “aggressive alarm” reactions 
in ants. Movements during panic retreat are more rapid and erratic 
than during normal foraging. In contrast, accidental or other con- 
tacts between C. insana workers never, in our observations, lead to 
antagonistic or panic retreat reactions. Chance encounters between 
2 foraging C. flavopecta workers can either be non-antagonistic or 
can initiate panic retreat (sometimes both workers displaying this 
behavior) according, we presume, to whether the meeting is between 
workers of the same colony or from 2 different colonies. 
With these uniformly different behavioral patterns, it has been 
rather surprising to discover on several occasions and places in 
Florida mixed colonies of the 2 species. The specific records for 
these mixed nests are as follows: Highlands Co., Archbold Biologi- 
cal Station, Lake Placid, 18 April 1973, J. C. Nickerson; Polk Co., 
Winter Haven, Camp’s citrus grove, 19 April 1973, J. C. Nickerson; 
Polk Co., Winter Haven, Camp’s citrus grove, 13 April 1974, J. C. 
Nickerson; Alachua Co., Gainesville, Depot Road, 30 April 1974, 
J. C. Nickerson; Alachua Co., Gainesville 15 May 1974, Wm. F. 
Buren; Alachua Co., Gainesville, 10 April 1975, J. F. Carroll; 
Alachua Co., Gainesville, 23 May 1975, Wm. F. Buren; Wakulla 
Co., Medart, 20 June 1975, D. P. Wojcik. 
In all of the mixed nests, workers of both species were observed 
participating in normal activities as nest-mates (foraging, casting 
out soil particles, moving together in the nest burrows, brood tend- 
ing, etc.) without antagonism. The mixed nests were never a part 
of an established enclave of unmixed C. insana nests but could be 
as close as 10 m from such an enclave or could be 1 of a number of 
separate nests in a field in which all or most of the other Conomyrma 
nests were unmixed C. flavopecta. We interpreted these observations 
and records as an indication that temporary parasitism might be 
occurring in these ants. 
Temporary parasitism is very well known in ants, especially in 
the subfamilies Formicinae and Myrmicinae (see excellent reviews 
by Wheeler 1910 and Wilson 1971). In the subfamily Dolichoderi- 
