Monomorium floricola, Jerdon

Forel, A., 1893, Formicides de l'Antille St. Vincent. Récoltées par Mons. H. H. Smith., Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 1893, pp. 333-418 : 388-389

2. Monomorium floricola, Jerdon .

(No. 27 a a 27 f). [[ worker ]] [[ queen ]] [[ male ]]. Cosmopolite dans les tropiques.

(27). Common locally about houses, not far from sealevel. Formicarium made in crevices of walls, & c. The workers. are diurnal (perhaps nocturnal also). They are attracted by sweet substances, and by dead animal matter; when they find these they remain a long time to feed, but appear to carry nothing away. It would seem that the females came out to forage with the workers, or alone. I have found them on tables, & c.

The workers move about singly, or four or five follow each other in a line; they cannot walk rapidly.

N. B. - Differs from No. 10 not only in colour, but in the proportion of joints ofthe antenna.

(27 a). About the house at Golden Grove (leeward), 800 ft. October. Many were found on' a bird-skin, which was in course of drying.

(27 b). Golden Grove, Nov. 9 th; evening. Crawling on a table. It was not attended by workers.

(27 c). Note lost. Probably from the same formicarium.

(27 d). Golden Grove Estate (leeward), 300 ft. Dec. 14 th. Formicarium found in a package of glass collection bottles or tubes, which had been packed away on a shelf in a dark corner. The ants had made their way through the cork stoppers of two of the tubes, and in these tubes they kept the larvas. In one of the bottles were numerous wingless females and. a few males; in another there were also winged females. The paper in which the tubes were wrapped was also full of ants, including numerous males and females. The colony must have consisted of at least five thousand ants. The number of wingless females was remarkable, the proportion to workers found in the nest being, I should suppose, one to ten or twelve; but a portion of the workers may have been out foraging. Only a small number comparatively of the different forms were saved. There were few larvae and pupae; males very numerous.

(27 e). Near Kingstown; open valley, 500 ft. Oct. 27 th. A female found alone under a log.

(27 f). Windward side; bank near the seashore, north of Georgetown; under a stone. Jan. 3 rd. Several nests of this species were found on the windward side.

These ants are often found in water-jars. Whether alive or dead, they always float on the surface of the water, if washed into it.