54 
Psyche 
[June 
served the writers are not sure that the process described 
above is normal for texanus. But it should be remembered 
that the gaster of the texanus female is heavily sclerotized 
and because of this a large egg should be difficult to eject. 
Brood is tended by both minors and majors who, despite 
their clumsy heads, handle the eggs and young larvae with 
surprising gentleness. 
The distribution of texanus is unusually interesting, 
since it is one of the few cephalotine ants which live out- 
side the tropics. The structural relationship of texanus to 
certain Neotropical species is close but, because of the lack 
of records from northeastern Mexico, the spatial relation 
of texanus to the more southern species has been con- 
jectural. In the following pages the writers have discussed 
the distribution of texanus and that of several other 
cephalotines which occur in eastern Mexico. The northern 
range of the latter species seldom agrees with the data 
published by Kempf in 1951 (3) and 1952 (4). In his 
important work with the cephalotine ants Kempf has been 
hampered by lack of adequate records from Mexico. This 
is particularly true of the region north of Mexico City, 
where the ranges of several Neotropical species terminate. 
Kempf cannot be blamed for the absence of records from 
this area but his attempt to supply distribution data from 
specimens intercepted at plant quarantine stations is far 
from satisfactory. Kempf’s citation of Guerrero, Coahuila 
as a possible source of specimens of C. minutus, inter- 
cepted on orchids and labelled only "‘Guerrero” is a case in 
point. Guerrero, Coahuila lies four hundred miles outside 
.the northern limit of the range of C, minutics. Moreover, 
the village is situated in a very arid part of the Rio Grande 
Valley where the ants are strictly xerophilous. That min- 
utus could occur there is out of the question. 
Most of the colonies of texanus secured by the senior 
author came from the area outlined by M. R. Smith in his 
1947 publication. They were taken in what may be called 
the Brownsville-San Antonio-Houston triangle. The rec- 
ord from Sealy extends the known range of texanus about 
twenty-five miles to the east of its former limit (Colum- 
bus, Texas) but this extension is negligible and we agree 
with Dr. Smith that it is unlikely that texanus occurs east 
