272 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Dec. ], 1866. 



the centre of the receptacle, which ill this instance 

 has a conical shape. The spores are greenish-yellow, 

 small and smooth . 



One other species, and we have done. This is the 

 "little puff-ball," Lycoperdonpii sill urn, which is found 

 in pastures, or on hedge-banks, but which we are 

 fain to believe is not at all common. It does not 

 exceed an inch in diameter, is almost globose, or 

 perhaps top-shaped, and has olive spores. 



Fig. 255. Lycnperdon pusillum. 



There are other fungi very much like the puff-balls 

 which we have enumerated, to the untaught eye, be- 

 longing to the genus Bovista, but as a general feature 

 we may observe that the peridium is more papery-like 

 in its consistence, its outer bark peels off, and whereas 

 in Lycoperdon there is more or less a barren spongy 

 portion which occupies the lower or basal part of 

 the peridium (and forms the stem, in such species 

 as possess a stem), no such barren stratum is to be 

 found in the species of Bovista, the external colo ur 

 of which is also leaden or nearly black when ripe. 



M. C. C. 



THE RED HOUSE-ANT. 



{Diplorhoptrum molesta.) 



UNFORTUNATELY I can give no new in- 

 formation respecting the little ant which has 

 been sent me, and which, I am told, has recently 

 made its appearance in vast numbers at Hastings, 

 Brighton, &c, and also in the metropolis. I suspect 

 it has never been absent from London since the 

 period when it was first noticed here, or perhaps, 

 rather, when its appearance was first recorded, which 

 was in 182S. Some stir was made about it in 1836, 

 when the late Dr. Bostock brought the subject be- 

 fore the Entomological Society, his house, in Upper 

 Bedford-place, Russell-square, being annoyingly in- 

 fested by it. So great was the inconvenience he 

 suffered from the incursion of these little pests, that 

 he was induced to go to considerable expense in 

 his endeavour to extirpate them by removing the 

 ranges and wainscotings in his kitchens, &c, but, 

 I believe, without avail. In the discussion that 

 ensued at the time in the Society, I was applied to 

 by the President for an opinion as to the locality of 

 its probable origin, if not indigenous. Being then 

 much engaged upon the Hymenoptera, and not 

 having noticed it, at large, in my entomological ex- 

 cursions, although I had for some time frequently 



observed and admired the pretty little creature 

 indulging, in ones and twos, amongst my coffee 

 sugar of a morning, I hazarded the opinion that it 

 was an exotic, and very likely a native of the West 

 Indies, led to this surmise by my own experience. 

 That it is American is confirmed by the fact of its 

 abounding in the Brazils, where it is a greater pest 

 than with us, existing there in enormous profusion 

 everywhere, both in-doors and out of doors. It 

 appears to have streamed thence — assuming that 

 that country is its metropolis — upwards through the 

 isthmus to the United States, reaching as high as 

 Boston, in Massachusetts, where Thomas Say, the 

 celebrated American entomologist, was as much 

 annoyed by it as we are ; but he has suggested a 

 remedy which may help to curb, if not completely 

 to check, its diffusion. I described it, witli other 

 small exotic ants, in Charlesworth's " Magazine of 

 Natural History," in the year 1S38, by the name of 

 Myrmica dornestica, and where its description will 

 be found at page 626. I was not then aware that 

 Say had before described it as Myrmica molesta, in 

 the " Boston Journal of Natural History for 1834," 

 page 293, — a specific name suggested by the incon- 

 venience he had suffered from its intrusion. He 

 there tells us that "it is called 'the little yellow 

 ant, 5 and that it is frequently found in houses in 

 great numbers. They sometimes eat vegetable food, 

 and some of my garden-seeds have severely suffered 

 from their attacks. They also devour grease, olive- 

 oil, &c. Their sting is like the puncture of a very 

 fine needle. I placed a piece of meat on a window- 

 board frequented by these little depredators ; it was 

 soon absolutely covered by them, and thus enabled 

 me to destroy thousands every few hours that I 

 returned to examine the bait, for several days, 

 during which time their apparent numbers scarcely 

 diminished." 



Similar means might be resorted to with us in 

 houses where they abound ; and if the bait were 

 placed near the spots whence they are observed to 

 issue, very great numbers might be annihilated by 

 pouring a little boiling water over them. I am, 

 however, afraid that no radical cure can be effected 

 without the destruction of the nests which contain 

 the embryonic progeny. Their nests being con- 

 structed within or behind walls or wainscoting, or 

 under hearthstones and behind ranges, they are 

 difficult to get at. They swarm, I have no doubt, 

 externally, and in the air; and although the time 

 when this takes place has not been observed, I 

 expect atmospheric influences operate as powerfully 

 upon them as upon the rest of the tribe, and that it 

 therefore occurs during sultry, still days in the 

 summer and early autumn, when the air is charged 

 with electricity. This should be especially noted by 

 those who wish to eradicate them ; for the greater 

 the number of winged females that can be then 

 destroyed, the greater will be the decrease of their 



