258 The Scottish Naturalist. 



afterwards. It is black, with a slight slaty tint, obscure or but 

 slightly shining; head transverse, semicircular, almost wider than 

 the thorax ; front wide in both sexes ; eyelet triangle, a narrow 

 line next the eyes, and a minute arch above the base of the 

 antennas, slaty ; a few very minute black bristles on the crown, 

 and down the sides of the eyes, with a few longer on the hinder 

 margin of the head ; face black or greyish, short, obliquely 

 descending, slightly keeled in the middle, mouth-rim high; trunk 

 white; autennse with the third joint lenticular, moderate-sized, 

 clothed with white down, seta naked. Thorax short subquad 

 rate, convex, blackish, with a slaty shade, but slightly shining, 

 with scattered minute punctures, some, however, of which are in 

 lines, with short hairs on the back and long ones on the sides and 

 near the base ; sides and scutellum concolorous, the last with 

 two long hairs at the tip. Abdomen in the female short ovate, 

 blackish, a little more shining; hinder edges sometimes narrowly 

 white, the sides more cinereous, thickish dark grey, pubescent ; 

 beneath with two yellow lateral stripes, between which the seg- 

 ments form a series of shining black and yellow cross-bands, the 

 latter being at the hinder margins and narrower; the apex 

 itself shining black; in the male the tip obtuse, the belly obscure, 

 Legs short in the females, black or pitchy, the basal joint of 

 the fore and hinder tarsi at the base only, but in the middle 

 ones entirely pale ; in the males almost concolorous. Poisers 

 yellow, the club round ; the wings very short, clearish, scarcely 

 darkened, green, brown, and purplish iridescent; nervures dis- 

 tinct ; mediustine nervure double, in addition to it there are 

 four longitudinal nervures of which the upper three are sub- 

 parallel; the two cross nervures lie near the middle of the 

 wing, and of these the upper is slightly oblique. Length not 

 quite 1 line ; expansion of the wines 1 y 2 line. 



THE NEST OF FORMICA RUFA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 



( Concluded from p. 222. ) 

 By F. BUCHANAN WHITE, M.D. 



TN addition to the rightful owners, the ant-hill is often in- 



habited by other species of insects which not only manage 



to hold their own in a place where, one would imagine, any in- 



