The female is 4 2 to 4.8 mm. in length. General color reddish 
yellow, the mandibles, head, thorax above, and abdomen, except¬ 
ing margins of segments, yellow-brown. Antennse as in worker, 
but with eleven joints. Frontal carinae as in worker, ending in 
two teeth. Metathorax without spines behind. Second joint of 
abdominal peduncle somewhat broader than first, and twice as 
broad as long. Abdomen polished. Wings hyaline, with pale 
veins and stigma. 
The male is 3.5 to 3.6 mm. long, shining dark brown, head 
black-brown; mandibles, antennae, and legs yellow. The antennae 
have a short scape and no distinct club; third joint about one and 
a third times as long as thick. Metathorax entirely unarmed. 
Wings hyaline. 
Myrmica scabrinodis lobicornis, Nyl.* 
(Plate I.; and Plate II., Fig. 1.) 
On the strength of a single observation, made in 1887,1 
mention here a second species of ant as injurious to seed corn 
in the ground, more commonly known, however, to economic 
entomologists because of its association with injurious plant 
lice. This is one of the most abundant of our smaller species, 
occurring very commonly in the food of the smaller insectivor¬ 
ous birds. It may be at once distinguished from our other 
very abundant ants by the fact that, like the other members of 
its family, the stem or peduncle of the abdomen has two dis¬ 
tinct, rounded joints instead of one, and by the presence of two 
conspicuous stout spines or thorns projecting backward from the 
posterior upper part of the thorax, which is itself finely lined 
and grooved longitudinally. 
This species extends around the world in the northern hemi¬ 
sphere, and it is scattered in North America from ocean to 
ocean. Its habits in Europe, as reported by Dr. Auguste Forel,f 
are notably different from those of the same variety in Illinois. 
There it is subalpine in range, and breeds in July and August; 
while with us it is universally distributed, and the sexes appear 
in September and October. 
In Champaign, Ill., May 13, 1887, about a dozen workers of 
this ant were seen tearing off fragments from a kernel of sprouted 
corn just below the surface of the soil, disposing of them much 
as does the species mentioned above. Many other grains were 
found in different parts of the same field similarly injured, being 
sometimes, indeed, completely excavated. The abundance of 
this species and the obscurity of the injury suggest that it may 
do greater mischief than would appear from this statement. 
This species, like the preceding, feeds in fall upon kernels of 
corn at the tip of the ear in the field, most frequently following 
injuries by other insects, but certainly sometimes hollowing out 
the grain without their aid. 
\Les Fourmis de la Suisse. 
