254 '^^^^ Irish NaUiralisf. [October, 



ZOOLOGY. 



INSECTS. 



Sirex grigas in Ulster. 



I received on the lotli September a very fine specimen of this lar^^e 

 Saw-fly which had been caught at Florida, Co. Down. I have also 

 received a specimen from Ormeau Park ; and another from near 

 Ballymena. " Very common the last three or four years at the last 

 place, but not seen there previously " — so the farmer said who brought it. 



City Museum, Belfast. Chas. Ei^cock. 



Nyssia zonaria in Co. Antrim. 



Referring to Mr. Kane's interesting remarks regarding this species 

 (pp. 135-6 of this volume), it was INIr. Milne, not I, who first found the 

 larvae at Ballycastle, in June, 1S93. 



Londonderry. D. C. Campbei,!^. 



A Plague of Ants. 



On Sunday, August 14, on approaching Blessington from the east, 

 immense numbers of winged ants were observed, flying, or crawling on 

 the grass and roads. They became more abundant on nearing the 

 village, and I roughly estimated that on the half-mile of road adjoining 

 the village over a million and a half of ants were crawling, while in the 

 air above the road they were so abundant that ni}" clothes were quite 

 brown with them. The fields on each side were thick with them, the 

 windows of the hotel were alive with them, atid my tea was richly 

 flavoured wnth them. Unless they were confined to a narrow line down 

 which I had the fortune (?) to walk, there must have been hundreds of 

 millions of them within a mile of Blessington. Whence came such a 

 vast host of ants } Can our Hymenopterists explain ? The ants were 

 all of the one species — a common small brown ant. 



Dublin. R. LIvOvd Prakger. 



All the species of ants occurring in this country, when the weather is 

 favourable, swarm in August. From the description these insects may 

 have been the common Bank Ant, Lasius flavits, De G., or some of the 

 commonly distributed races of the Red Ant, Myrmica rubra, L-, most 

 probably the latter. I met with immense swarms of both these species 

 about the middle of last month on the shores of the Lower Shannon, 

 and also about Tralee. 1895 was the last year in which I noticed the 

 same abundance. 



Blackrock, Co. Dublin H. G. CuThberT. 



