A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 



"55 



troublesome, so that one or more species may have been native. 

 See Butler's account, 1619, quoted on p. 737. 



Mi'. Hurdis (Rough Notes, p. 324) mentions two species of injuri- 

 ous ants, viz: the small House-ant (fig. 110), and a much larger one 

 which he supposed to be of West Indian origin. The latter was 

 especially troublesome by destroying food of all kinds. He also 

 stated that they were destructive to rabbits, both old and young.* 



He also says that during seven summers previous to 1848 

 "Bermuda has been infested with ants to a fearful degree," but dur- 

 ing that summer their numbers were greatly decreased, by some 

 unknown cause. This must have been distinct from both the small 

 species named above. Probably this is also the one that is said to 



destroy honey, in the hives. 



Ill 



109 



Figure 109. — Ichneumon parasite of Cockroach (Evania), male; and b, pupa ; 

 slightly enlarged ; after Packard. Figure 110. — House Ant (Monomorium 

 minutum) ; a, female; b, worker; x 5. Figure 111. — Pavement or Garden 

 Ant (Tetramorium ccespitum) ; a, female ; x 3; b, worker ; x 4. Both ants 

 from Webster's International Dictionary; after Mai'latt. 



European Black Ant. [Formica nigra L.) This common European 

 species was recorded by W. F. Kirby as collected in Bermuda by the 

 Challenger Exped. (Annals & Mag. Nat. Hist., xiii, p. 404, 1884). 



Dr. Fr. Dahl (Plankton Exped., i, pt. 1, p. 109) records two addi- 

 tional species: 



Pheidole pusilla (Heer). Smith, Catal. Brit. Mus. Hym., vi, p. 173, 

 pi. ix, figs. 18-20. A small species related to the agricultural ants. 

 The major workers or soldiers have remarkably large heads and 

 powerful jaws. Specimens of both the major and minor workers of 

 this species, taken at St. Davids I., in October, were sent to me by 



* " Hill and dale and even the dwellings of men were equally alive with this 

 insect pest. Dense columns of them might be seen travelling up and down 

 every tree, and great was the havoc they occasioned among young pigeons and 

 poultry, nor did the full-grown domestic rabbit escape their deadly attack, and 

 pigs were sometimes destroyed by them. " Rough Notes, p. 324. 



