4 
Psyche 
[March 
Fig. 1. Major of Pheidole ridicula in the position it assumes when about 
to attack another ant. 
between the mandibles. Perhaps this is why the ridicula major is 
much less deliberate in its attack and will strike the victim anywhere. 
Moreover, when the major of ridicula is aroused it will sometimes 
charge its own minors by mistake. It seldom kills them for the minor 
usually dodges under the closing mandibles to a safe position below 
the major’s head. Nevertheless minors of ridicula are sometimes 
crushed by their own majors. In the encounters which occurred daily 
around each of the nests, the majors of ridicula rarely got the worst 
of it. They disposed of the majors of Ph. floridana , metallescens and 
dentata with ease and had little trouble with those of Solenopsis 
geminata. They would occasionally kill workers of Pogonomyr?nex 
harhatus although this species was more often driven away than 
killed. There can, however, be no doubt about the high efficiency of 
the major of ridicula as a guard. 
In addition to its activities as a guard the major of ridicula also 
functions as a seed crusher. Each of the flowers of Amaranthus 
palmeri produces a single, shiny, black seed about one millimeter in 
diameter, which resembles a tiny, blunt-edged discus. When these 
seeds are ripe they may fall out through a transverse slit which de- 
velops in the ovary wall or the ovary may be shed with the seed 
inside it. The minors strip the ovary wall away from such seeds 
after they are brought to the nest and the small amount of chaff 
which accumulates around the nest entrance is the result of this 
stripping. As far as could be determined the minors of ridicula can- 
not open the palmeri seeds; at least they never did so in the observa- 
tion nests. When the major opens one of these seeds it picks it up 
by closing the mandibles on the lateral surfaces of the seed. Increas- 
ing pressure on these surfaces ultimately shatters the seed. In the 
observation nests the majors opened a number of seeds in quick 
