ANTS VS. ALETIA. 
93 
" August 27. — In the morning caterpillars dropped into the midst 
of a very strong colony of brown stinging ants (tfolenopsis xyloni) were 
very quickly destroyed; some of them made hardly any effort to escape. 
The same colony was experimented on in the heat of the day, and four- 
fifths of the caterpillars escaped. 
"August 28. — Experiments made with a colony of brown ants (ap- 
parently Dorymyrmex jtavus), by dropping caterpillars in the path of a 
moving column, resulted in the escape of fifteen; five were killed by 
(he ants. I have several times observed a column of the same species 
of ants engaged in robbing colonies of another common species and 
at such times they are much less inclined to attack caterpillars in their 
path. T have never yet witnessed the capture of a caterpillar upon 
h<- plants by ants unless it had webbed up and was stiffened to form 
pupa. During the hottest hours of the day the worms were more pow- 
erfully affected by the sting of this brown ant, and a greater proportion 
were captured by them at this time; a caterpillar sometimes succumbed 
after being twice stung." 
The following extracts from Mr. Schwarz's notes are interesting in 
this connection : 
" Of ants only three species were actually observed to attack worms 
or rhrysalids, Dorymyrmex insanus, Solenopxin xyloni, and, on a single oc- 
• - m, a small undetermined species. The first two species are very 
common, and, in my opinion, the only ones which are of importance in 
this Cotton Worm matter. The colonies of all these species are to be met 
with in the cotton fields. The former are always small and consist of 
round or oval subterranean excavations connected with the surface by 
a single, almost vertical gallery at the entrance of which no hill of up- 
thrown soil is raised. Solenopsis xyloni, on the other hand, very often 
forms large colonies on places not disturbed by plowing or other causes. 
Those in the cotton fields are usually very small, without doubt on ac- 
count of the frequent disturbances. There is always a hill of loose soil 
or sand, as the case may be, raised by this ant, through which several 
entrances lead to shallow but large irregular excavations below the 
surface of the ground. There are two or more such chambers, one above 
the other. A Scarabreid beetle, Euparia caxtanea, is inquiliuous with this 
ant. and hundreds of them occur in a large colony. Its larva is found 
in the innermost part of the nest, and feeds upon the roots of grasses ; 
the beetle is to be found in all parts of the nest, but rarely in young 
colonies. 
"As to the efficacy of these two species of ants, I wish to remark that 
on several occasions I saw them at work destroying larvae or chrysa- 
lides which I had every reason to suppose were in healthy condition 
when attacked. In one instance I saw them attacking a moth just 
issuing from the chrysalis. More often they attack worms which are 
wounded or disabled by other enemies, and pupae which have been 
stung by some Heteropteron, or which are rotten. They attack Ire- 
