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Psyche 5:111-112, 1888.

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September-October ISSS]. Ps2??m. 111
and destructive in Illinois than the En- tomophthora, although seemingly less
so at present than the bacterial form.
It now seems likely that these diseases, occurring as they do spontaneous^
over a large area, will soon suppress
what has probably been the longest-
continued destructive outbreak of the
chinch bug known in the history of that
insect. Their present activity is illus- trated by the fact that in a single field in Southern Illinois dead chinch bugs
imbedded in this mold were found by
an assistant, Mr. John Marten, so nu-
merous as to suggest a recent flurry of
snow.
NOTES ON THE WHITE ANT, FOUND ON THE BAHAMAS. BY CHARLES J. MAY NARD, NEWTONVILLE, MASS. Among' the many objects of interest
that engage the attention of the Natm-al- ist on the Bahamas perhaps the most
striking are the nests of the White Ants. The first that I saw was in the vicinity of Nassau in a cultivated field. It is
the custom among the natives upon
clearing away any portion of the. low
growth of trees, that occupy the land
before it is tilled, to leave certain ones which serve for bean polls, or as a sup- port foi the stem of the yam which
climbs to a considerable hight. The tree usually selected is the gumbo limbo, that has long- naked branches, the twigs of
which are only scantily supplied with
leaves. These trees are so very often
chosen by the ants as a support that it
is not infrequent to see two or three
nests in one field placed on them. The
color of these domiciles is nearly black and as they are often of a large size they form conspicuous objects, even when
seen from a distance.
The nest, of which I have spoken,
was placed upon a limb some three feet
from the ground, was about four feet
high by some two feet in di:imeter and
was very nearly of the form of an old
fashioned bee hive. This object in the
midst of the field presented such a
singular appearance that it was only
upon close observation that I convinced
myself that it was not something made
by the owner of the field, and placed
there by him for some purpose.
Subsequent observation showed that
the ants prefer to build in openings, and that the gumbo limbo is a favorite tree
on which to place their nests ; this may be explained by the fact that the trunks of these trees are covered with a smooth bark thus rendering thecovered passages
that the insectsbuild betweenthe ground
and nests more easy of construction
than on rougher material. There are
two reasons, that appear plausible, why
the ants prefer open fields to less ex-
posed and more shady locations; the
first of which is that they like the hot sunshine and free circulation to dry the moist material which is used in the




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construction of the nests, second the
materials from which they gather their
building supplies, and which consists of dead wood, palm leaves, boards, shin-
gles, etc., etc., are much more abundant in the fields than elsewhere. In fact so universally are these situations chosen
that I do not now remember ever hav-
ing seen a nest in any other place.
The nests, as related, are most often
placed in trees, generally low and near
the trunk, but I have occasionally seen
them among" the branches. I have also
seen them on stumps and even on rocks,
although this support is rarely used.,
In form, the nests are, as remarked,
hive-shaped whenever the basal sup-
port is large, but if it be small the ants will then build around it, producing
another hive-shaped structure with its
base upward which, resting against the
base above, results in an oval-shaped
nest. Sometimes, owing to the situa-
tion, irregularly formed nests are seen, but there is always a tendency to as-
sume the hive shape. The nests are
composed of various galleries about .20
of a inch high and about the same
width, of varying length, opening into
others in many directions, thus the
whole system forms an exceedingly
complicated labyrinth, the clew of
which is difficult to find, but which ap- pears to be perfectly unclerstoocl by the insects. From the nests to the ground
and whenever the passages cross rocks,
the surfaces of which are exposed, and
this frequently occurs even at a con-
siderable distance from the nests, the
road ways by which the ants travel are
always covered. These thoroughfares
are of sufficient width to allow the in- sects to pass freely at all points, and
upon breaking down any portion of a
gallery they may be seen hurrying in
both directions.
Whenever their passage ways are
broken open some of the ants at once
begin to repair it, and this brings me
to the material used in building, and the method of depositing it. Fibers, gath-
ered from dead wood, leaves, etc., and
mixed with enough earth to give it a
dark color form the principal portion
of their building material. How this
is applied, was for a long time,
a mystery to me, for although I had
seen many hundred nests it was not
until Dec. 19th of last year that I
chanced upon one of them upon which
visable labor was being performed. I
was passing a nest that stood on the
margin of a field on Andros, when,
attracted by its size, it being the largest that I had ever seen, measuring" six feet in height by four and a half in diameter, I turned aside to examine it, and per-
ceived that a circular piece some six
inches in diameter was being built on
one side. Something over two inches
of the outer margin of this portion had
been completed, leaving a circular hole
in the centre. On this portion the ants
were at work, standing around the un-
finished margin as close together as
possible without interfering with one
another's movements. The workers are
constantly changing, as one disappeared
another took its place. Upon appear-
ing each ant had its jaws filled with




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September-October 1888.1 PSTCHE. 113
building material and as it reached the
wall it turned and exuded a drop of
rnucilagino~~s fluid from the abdomen
then whirled instantly about and de-
posited its fibers upon it as it lay on the wall, mixing and moulding the mass
with its jaws. This pulp had about
the consistency of papier inache and
was readily manipulated forming a wall
of about the thickness; of heavy writing paper. This hardens rapidly, but
remains pliable for some time, thus the
walls on the extreme outer edge of the
newly erected portion could be bent
without breaking, whereas the older
portions are quite brittle.
As the orifice on which the ants were
employed grew smaller, fewer and
fewer could find room, yet there was
no crowding-, each keeping' his ac-
c~istomecl distance from Ins fellows, so one after another they disappeared, as
I watched, until but one was left to
complete the minute hole remaining.
These ants are very destructive to
buildings, especially to the small houses of the negros, and when they have once
obtained a foothold the house is doomed. I knew of a small house in the neigh-
borhood of Nassau that had not been
occupied for a year or two that was
WALCKENAER'S NAMES
two-thirds devoured by them. There
was a nest on the roof, supported by
the rafters, around which all the shingles had disappeared, while others were
much eaten and all the posts were thickly perforated with their galleries. Such
was the speed with which the ants
worked, through industry and numbers,
that the eroded surfaces appeared quite
fresh, being of nearly the color of newly cut wood. The owner of this house
informed me that he had destroyed
every trace of the nest many times only
to see it rebuilt, as fast as the ants
could construct it.
[NOTE. Unfortunately Mr. Maynard
did not preserve specimens of this
termite for indentification and Dr.
Hagen in his Monographie der Termiten
does not mention any species from the
Bahamas. In 1883 Mr. B. H. Van
Vleck collected large numbers of Eu-
temes ripperti at Nassau, and Mr.
Maynard's observations undoubtedly
refer to this species, which is common
upon many of the West Indian islands
and in South America. See, Proc.
Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., December 1877
v. 19, p. 267-2774 for Notes on the tree nests of Termites in Jamaica by H. G.
Hubbard.-S : H.]
OF AMERICAN SPIDERS.
BY JAMES HENRY EMERTON, BOSTON, MASS.
Mr. Henry C. McCook has called using t11ei-n in place of latter names attention in the Proceedings of the Phil- given by Hentz and others. adelphia Acad. of Nat. Sciences to the
There is no doubt that as far as these
names of American spiders published
names can be identified with certainty
by Walckenaer, and the necessity of
and shown to be the oldest, they ought




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