122 
Psyche 
[June-September 
I have observed other wasp species leave their nest promptly when 
besieged by army ants and have found that 16 of 31 other polistines 
also become alarmed by Eciton odors (Chadab 1979). Forsyth 
(1978) also reported that 3 species of Polistinae responded to army 
ant odors. Numerous ant prey have also been observed to flee (with 
their brood in contrast to social waps) in advance of an army-ant 
attack (pers. observ., Topoff 1975). Such evidence suggests that the 
early detection of army ants is common among ant and social-wasp 
prey and may be an important phenomenon in the invasion of 
social-insect colonies by army ants. 
Acknowledgments 
The author wishes to thank C. W. Rettenmeyer for his advice and 
comments on the research and manuscript, M. S. Blum for provid¬ 
ing chemicals, T. del Beliz for aid in the field, O. W. Richards for 
identifying the wasp, and C. S. Henry, R. L. Jeanne, M. G. Nau- 
mann for commenting on the manuscript. This research was sup¬ 
ported by a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Visiting 
Research Student Appointment, NSF Grant BMS 75-03389 (C. W. 
Rettenmeyer, Principal Investigator), NSF Doctoral Dissertation 
Improvement Grant 76-11726 and a University of Connecticut 
Research Foundation Grant #35-902. 
Literature Cited 
Blum, M. S. 
1973. Comparative exocrinology of the Formicidae. Proc. VII Congr. IUSSI, 
London, p. 23-40. 
Brown, W. L. 
1973. A comparison of the Hylean and Congo-West African rain forest ant 
faunas, p. 161-185 in Tropical forest ecosystem in Africa and South 
America: A comparative review, Betty J. Meggers, et al. eds., Smithson¬ 
ian Institution Press, Wash. D.C. 
Chadab, R. 
1979. Army-ant predation on social wasps. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Univer¬ 
sity of Connecticut. 260 p. 
Chadab, R. and C. W. Rettenmeyer 
1975. Mass recruitment by army ants. Science 188:1124-1125. 
Forsyth, A. B. 
1978". Studies on the behavioral ecology of polygynous social wasps. Unpub¬ 
lished Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University. 226 p. 
