APPENDIX. 69 



encumber himself with bulky collectious difficult to transport 

 from place to place, than the study of ants. The whole 

 European ant fauna might be adequately represented by 

 specimens preserved in spirit of wine and packed in the 

 compass of a hat-box. 



In taking specimens of ants it is important never to put 

 the representatives of more than one nest in each bottle, but 

 then in most cases a sufficient number may be placed in a 

 single bottle of the size used for containing the smaller 

 homoeopathic globules. If possible the winged male and 

 female ants, as well as the wingless workers, should be secured. 



The ants die very quickly in pure spirit of wine, and they 

 can afterwards, even after the lapse of months or more, be 

 pinned out in the cabinet after having been washed in warm 

 water. In examining the mouth organs of an ant in order to 

 determine by the aid of books to what genus it belongs, it is 

 best to relax the parts by first washing away the spirit of 

 wine, and then leaving the specimen for a day or more in a 

 stopper bottle partly filled with finely chopped laurel leaves. 

 It is probable that a drop or two of prussic acid on a bit of 

 sponge might act as efiectually in rendering the tissues pliable, 



A compound microscope is necessary for the final examina- 

 tion of the joints of the labial and maxillary palpi (see Fig. 

 D 2, Plate I., p. 21); but the neuration of the wing (D 1, 

 Plate I.), another very important character, is easily detected 

 with a good pocket-lens. 



The works which may most usefully be consulted are, for 

 France, M. Ny lander's Forinicides de France et d'Algerie, 

 published in vol. v. of the fourth series of the Zoological 

 Division of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles ; for Eng- 

 land, Mr. F. ^unih! ^Catalogue of British Fossorial Hymenop- 

 tera (L856) ; and for a more general review of the species in 

 the world at large, Mr. F. Smith's Catalogue of Hymenop- 

 terous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum, 

 Part vi., Formicidce (1858), and M. Mayr's Beitrdge zur 

 Kenntniss der Ameisen, published in the Verhandlungen 

 des Zoologisch-botanischen Vereines in Wien, iii. 1853. 

 Ahhandlangeii (p. lOl). 



