The Mound-Building Ant, Formica Exsectoides F., Associated with Tree-Hoppers

Abstract

Since this common mound builder of the Eastern States is very active all through the warm months and puts forth great energy in the building of its large earth nests, it is of interest to inquire into the nature of the food that keeps it going and tides it over the winter in a semitorpid state in which the food eaten in summer seems the basis for continued life. Near Baltimore in the special region elsewhere described this ant feeds upon offall and earthworms, etc. to some slight extent; but its chief food is got from other insects; either directly by capture or finding of living or dead beetles, flies, bees, bugs, and especially the larvae of Lepidoptera, or indirectly by utilization of the honey-dew given forth by insects that suck the sap from trees. The protein food got from insects seems small in amount as compared with the chief diet of honeydew which is largely carbohydrate.