AND OTHER INDIGENOUS ANTS. 215 



6. M. acervoruMj Pabr. Ent. Syst. vol. ii. p. 358. M. lacteipetmis, Zett. Ins. Lap. <J . 



I have never met with this species, but Mr. Smith has taken the male, flying in abun- 

 dance in a fir-grove in Hants, in September, and also under bark of trees in the same 

 county. 



7. M. dekticornis, Curt. 



Male (fig. 18) pale dull castaneous, sparingly hairy : head with indistinct irregular 

 striae; eyes black; mandibles pale straw colour. Antennae fulvous. Thorax smooth, 

 shining, indistinctly sculptured ; the scutel with an ochreous margin, finely striated, as 

 well as the postscutel, which is concave behind, the angles forming short acute spreading 

 spines. Petiole with ochreous articulations ; basal nodule a little elongated and irregu- 

 larly striated, second nodule smooth and shining : abdomen very glossy, often darker, the 

 margins of the segments paler. "Wings slightly tinted, the stigma and nervures pale ful- 

 vous. Legs fulvous ; coxae, tips of thighs and tarsi pale ochreous : 2 \ lines long. 



Female undiscovered. 



Neuter (fig. 19) castaneous-black : head finely striated, clypeus with fewer but stronger 

 striae ; mandibles ochreous, the teeth and base pitchy. Antennae fulvous, stoutish, con- 

 siderably clavate (fig. 20), the scape angulated at the base and producing a minute dark 

 tooth (fig. 20/). Thorax very rugose, being irregularly sculptured all over, the angles of 

 the postscutel forming two long divaricating spines, pale at the tips. Petiole stoutish, 

 basal nodule ovate, truncated behind, second globose, both very rugose : abdomen very 

 smooth and shining, with short pale scattered hairs, and subferruginous at the apex. 

 Legs entirely fulvous ; thighs and tibiae clavate : length 2 lines. 



By the peculiar contour of the scape at the base, which forms a knee producing a mi- 

 nute tooth in the neuter, and probably is similar in the female, this very distinct species 

 is no doubt allied to the M. lobicornis of Nylander ; but as this tooth is much less deve- 

 loped than in his Myrmica *, and he says, " capite, thorace nodisque segmenti primi lon- 

 gitudinaliter striatim profundi} rugosis t," our insects must be different, for the head of 

 mine is merely finely striated, and the thorax and both nodules are exceedingly rugose, 

 but not longitudinally striated. 



I secured three males and four neuters from a nest in Scotland in July 1825 ; but I 

 did not observe any females. 



8. M. OESPITUM, Linn. Paun. Suec. 1726 ; De Geer, vol. ii. p. 1105. pi. 43. figs. 15 & 16 ? , 



figs. 21 & 22 <J . M. fuscula, Nylander, p. 935, & pi. 18. fig. 34 ?, & p. 1053 ? . M. im- 

 pura, Poerst. var. teste D. Nylander, and possibly M. modesta, Poerst., also. 



I only know the male of M. ccespitum by De Geer's memoir and figures, and until we 

 possess that sex, together with undoubted females, I shall not be satisfied regarding our 

 members of this species, for our neuters do not altogether accord with Nylander' s and 

 Poerster's descriptions. In the British examples, the tibiae, as well as the thighs, are 

 pitchy, the head is finely striated, not rugulose, neither will the sculpture of the thorax 



* Adn. Mon. Form. pi. 18. f. 32. t Ibid - P- 932 - 4 - 



