206 THE entomologist's KECOEU. 



her prey. When confined in a box the J invariably devoured the 

 ^ , leaving nothing but the head, legs, and part of the thorax. 



Seeing this phenomenon on such a large scale strengthened my 

 theory that it is an important factor towards the successful adoption 

 of the 2 by a ni(ier colony. The devouring of the ^ would serve two 

 purposes ; first, it would enable the ? to exist during her search for 

 a suitable colony, since she has not the supply of fat which enables the 

 self-founders to exist for months without food from external sources ; 

 and secondly it would cause the 2 to lose the inubratiin odour and 

 acquire that of nbier, and thus favour her chance of acceptance by a 

 colony of the latter. Or, looked at from another point of view, the act 

 might set in motion a process transforming the 2 from her present 

 condition of antagonism towards all strange ants, into one of friend- 

 liness for, and attraction towards, L. nu/er. 



Though repeated experiments have shown that it is only queenless 

 or small colonies that normally accept a parasitic queen, I found a 

 marked difference in the behaviour of a powerful colony (queen and 

 several thousand ^ ^ ) of /.. nii/cr towards L. uiiihratiis 2 2 that had 

 devoured ni(fer ^ ^ , and those that had not. In the latter case the 

 2 2 were killed at once, but the former were approached in a very 

 different manner, and were not attacked until some time had elapsed 

 and they had penetrated into the centre of the nest. Every one of 

 fourteen small queenless colonies of nif/er accepted iivibrotiis 2 ? 

 readily, three of them taking two each, and another three. In all but 

 one of these latter four cases the 2 2 fought, only one surviving in 

 each ; and numerous 2 2 put in pairs and threes always fought, the 

 strongest killing the others by cutting them in two at the pedicel by 

 sawing movements of the mandibles, as before described. 



It is very probable that the bodies of these parasitic 2 ? are at- 

 tractive to the ants, as appears to be the case with Anenjates, which 

 also sometimes captures and holds, but does not kill, a host ^ after 

 impregnation ; at any rate, they have an attraction for the myrmeco- 

 philous beetle Clavhjer te.staceiis not possessed by L. ni<ier or L. flaciis. 

 In two nests of L. Jiavus containing two Clavitfer and one queen, and 

 fourteen Claviijer and five queens repectively, and in one of niiier with 

 one queen and one Clavif/er, the beetles were never observed to cling to 

 the bodies of the queens, whereas in two colonies of Lasiim iiii/cr with 

 a L. Hiiibratns queen and two Clavi(jc)- in each, the beetles were almost 

 invariably clinging to the gasters of the queens, and often appeared 

 to lick the surface of the body. 



Marriage=flights of Donisthorpea species on August Sth, etc. 



H. DONISTHORPE, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 

 When recording a marriage flight of Donkthorpea (= Lfl.s///.s) nic/ra 

 which took place at Folkestone on August 9th, 1911, 1 mentioned that 

 marriage flights also took place at Margate and Seaview, Isle of 

 Wight, on the same afternoon, and I stated : — "It is evident that the 

 ants are aftected by some atmospheric influence, and it would be 

 interesting to find out over how large an area they are aflfected at the 

 same time." — Knt. llec, 2i, 6-7 (1912). 



The marriage flights on August Hth this year help to answer this 

 question. In the newspapers vast numbers of winged ants are men- 



