1884.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 61 



5) of communicating ways, by galleries running crosswise. Be- 

 yond this, they descended separately, having no connection at 

 all, so far as could be observed. At the time that Dr. De Puy 

 opened this nest the ground was already frozen, making the dig- 

 ging quite difficult. No ants wei'e found except a few stragglers 

 who were encamped within the faggot-ball, the mass of the com- 

 munity having evidently taken up their winter-quarters in 

 regions further underground than the point reached, and not 

 improbably below the reach of frost. The purpose of the faggot- 

 ball can now only be conjectured. I can think of nothing quite 

 analogous to it in any formicary known to me ; it suggests the 

 globe of curled rootlets and dry grass which I have found within 

 the cavern of that hymenopterous all^^ of the ant, the humble-bee 

 (Bombus virginicus), and perhaps may serve the san^e purpose, 

 viz. : that of a general nurser^^ and common living-barracks for 

 the family. At least, I have no better conjecture to venture at 

 this time. It is curious to note such resemblances in habit 

 between distantly removed members of an order of insects ; but 

 the fact is no more, indeed not so much of a surprise, as to find 

 in the caves of the Texas Cutting ant (AUafervens) a leaf-paper 

 rudely-celled nest, the product of a habit which exists in perfec- 

 tion in those other hymenopterous allies, the paper-rqaking 

 wasps. 



Marriage Flight of the Sexes. — :Mr. Russell informed me that 

 the ants appear in the spring with the first vegetation, and by the 

 time of hay-harvest, the latter part of July, nunierous swarms pf 

 " flying ants " are seen. These, of course, are the yoijng males 

 and females who, being matured, abandon or are pushed out of 

 the home-nest for the marriage flight to meet and pair in the air. 

 At this period the swarms are very annoying to the inhabitants. 

 A person driving or riding over the prairie will find himself sudT 

 denly in the midst of one of these hosts. The insects settle upon 

 the body, creep into the openings of the clothes, and produce a 

 disagreeable sensation. Such a swarm settled upon the first 

 house which Mr. Russell built, and the carpenters were compelled 

 to abandon it while in the act of shingling the roof. In the hay- 

 field, the harvesters are often obliged to stop to fight off" the 

 winged hosts, and those in charge of the hay-wagon to abandon 

 for the time the stack which is being hauled to the barn, on 



