1966 ] Blum and Portocarrero — Chemical Releasers 15 1 
Table 1. Response of attine species and a species of Attaphila to 
artificial trails prepared from extracts of the poison gland of 
Daceton armigerum. 
Test species 
No. of workers 
tested 
No. of workers 
responding 
Daceton armigerum 
100 
O 
T rachymyrmex septentrionalis 
100 
90 
A cromyrmex coronatus 
100 
87 
Acromyrmex nr. coronatus 
100 
94 
Sericomyrmex urichi 
60 
0 
A tta texana 
100 
73 
Atta cephalotes 
100 
82 
A ttaphila sp. 
30 
28 
exceptional vision and they are able to pursue their prey for con- 
siderable distances (Wilson, 1962). 
The two colonies of Daceton that Wilson studied were strictly 
aboreal and in no instance did he see workers move from the trees 
to the ground. However, in the single Daceton colony which we 
observed we noted three workers on the leaf litter adjacent to the 
base of their nest tree, making no apparent effort to forage on the 
leaves, and two other workers some distance from their colonial tree. 
Under the nest tree there were two small shrubs separated from the 
overhanging tree by at least three feet. A Daceton worker was rest- 
ing on each shrub. These workers only could have reached these 
shrubs by walking across the leaf litter under their nest tree or by 
falling from the tree onto the shrubs. These observations suggest 
that under certain conditions Daceton workers may not be totally 
arboreal. 
METHODS AND MATERIALS 
A nest of Daceton was located in a large tree in a nursery at 
Buenos Aires, 25 kilometers south of Pucallpa, Peru, near the Rio 
Ucayalli. The colony consisted of three fragments in two branches 
of the tree. Approximately 600 workers were collected from the 
nest and were transported to Pucallpa for odor trail studies. Their 
poison glands were extracted in absolute ethanol. These ethanolic 
extracts were employed for preparing circular trails (Moser and 
Blum, 1963) and Daceton and Atta cephalotes (L.) 4 workers were 
tested on these trails. The living Daceton workers were transferred 
“Collected at Pucallpa, Peru. 
