218 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



as F. nigra, in clearing away rubbish, for although, 

 as far as I know, they always carried their dead 

 down to the platform, none of them were thrown 

 into the water, and the remains of flies and such- 

 like they generally left lying up above in the 

 formicary. Their curiosity, like that of all ants I 

 have come across, was inordinate, and whenever 

 I cleaned out the trough or the platform, hosts of 

 ants, apparently the whole colony, would pour 

 down one after the other to witness the change. 



M. ntginodis were very persevering in bringing 

 their young into the warmth of the sun, and left 

 them out very much longer than F. nigra did. In 

 fine weather they would often remain in the pas- 

 sages next the glass from eight in the morning 

 until five or six in the evening. The pupse are 

 never enclosed in cocoons, and when placed out in 

 the warmth they were curled up, and of a white or 

 brownish colour. I saw none in my nest after 

 August 12, but in colonies out of doors I noticed 

 them several weeks later. On June 22 I gave 

 them two larva? from a strange nest of 31. ntginodis. 

 They were instantly detected as intruders, and the 

 first ant who came into contact with them, instead 

 of carrying them into shelter with all speed, as he 

 would by his natural instincts have done, began to 

 tear and pull them about in the most unmerciful 

 manner, and though after a time the ants conveyed 

 them below, it was palpably to eat and not to 

 nurture them. 



Night was always a quiet time with 31. ntginodis, 

 although at all hours there were generally one or 

 two about. Their principal opening was also in 

 the centre, by the roots of the grass, and males and 

 females when they attempted to emerge, as they often 

 ■did, were peremptorily and even savagely repulsed. 

 They swarmed on August 30, nearly a month before 

 F. nigra, but I was not present at the time, and, 

 most unfortunately, was not informed of the occur- 

 rence till afterwards. 



The end of my formicary was not successful. I 

 noticed, on August 18, that the colony was in a 

 state of great bustle and excitement, and the whole 

 surface of the formicary, the glass sides, the bur- 

 rows, and the platform were swarming with ants 

 hurrying hither and thither. As I subsequently 

 found, they were on the point of migrating, for in 

 the course of that fatal morning they escaped by 

 the dozen. Nothing stopped them ; they fearlessly 

 crossed the water, although many were drowned in 

 the attempt, and many had a long and desperate 

 struggle before they reached the opposite bank. 

 If put back into the case, they instantly set about 

 a fresh escape, and I soon found that all my efforts 

 were perfectly vain, and that I must let them go 

 their own way. And so I did, and by the evening 

 all the principal portion of my colony had decamped. 

 They made direct for a crack under the window, 

 down which they went, and thence, doubtless, they 



got into the garden. I feel sure that nothing 

 would have kept them in; but their escape was 

 facilitated by my trough being made of zinc, which 

 caused a generation of gases on the surface of the 

 water, on the top of which they could easily and 

 lightly cross. The zinc was continually a source of 

 trouble to me in this way, and there was also a 

 constant settlement of thick gummy mucus at the 

 bottom of the water, which makes even the rust of 

 tin far preferable to this. I fancy that sheet lead 

 would prove as obnoxious as zinc. 



Since this migration the few remaining ants have 

 done little or nothing. They neither eat, drink, or 

 work, and I shall, next year, have to entirely re-stock 

 the formicary, probably extending my observations 

 to a fresh species. At the time I write, however, 

 October 3, what ants are left have laid themselves 

 up for the winter. I must also observe that I was 

 away from home all July, and, in consequence, I 

 doubtless lost many observations which I otherwise 

 might have made. 



Ants have been endowed from time immemorial, 

 by both ancient and modern writers, with divers 

 magic and marvellous qualities. The following 

 receipt of the famous old herbalist, Culpepper, is 

 a good and amusing instance of this : — 



" To draw a tooth without pain.— Fill an earthen 



crucible full of emmets, ants, or pismires, eggs 



and all, and when you have burned them, keep the 



ashes, with which if you touch a tooth it will fall 



out." 



Edward Fentone Elwin. 



Booton, Norwich. 



DEFENSIVE RESOURCES OF BRITISH 

 INSECTS. 



ON reading the article entitled "Protective 

 Mimicry," in the September number of 

 Science-Gossip, it occurred to me that a more ex- 

 tended view of the display of this power among our 

 British insects might possibly be interesting to un- 

 scientific gossipers, and, better still, might provoke 

 in the pages of that periodical a little harmless 

 discussion on the subject. Much, very much, is 

 still to be gleaned respecting the habits of insects, 

 and there are whisperings abroad that we English 

 entomologists are getting strangely lazy, for in an 

 early number of the Field for 1871, the reviewer, 

 while picking out the flaws in a French work on 

 insects, took occasion to deplore the — what shall I 

 say — fact — that England was doing very, very little 

 to advance the cause of entomology. The plaintive 

 reviewer had, I am sorry to say, a good deal of 

 truth on his side, for nowadays the majority of us, I 

 fear, instead of watching the habits of an insect, 

 either impale it on pins to swell a collection, or else 

 amputate one of its members with an ingenious 

 flourish and dexterous cut, macerate the said 



