44 THE entomologist's record. 



antennae before moving on. If the ants be of some species of Myrmiccty 

 they merely touch each other with their antennae, and then separate, 

 the mere touch being sufficient to satisfy both that they are friends. 

 If the species be Formica rufa, fiisca, or .'iani/uinea, the greeting is 

 often prolonged, the antennae playing rapidly on each other; and often, 

 especially in hot weather, one of the ants will be seen to make a rapid 

 jerk of the whole body towards the other. This rapid motion of the 

 body does not consist (as is sometimes stated) in striking the head 

 against the other ant. I have watched innumerable cases with great 

 care, and the only parts of the body touching at the time are usually 

 the antennae. With Formica, too, ants will often paw each other 

 rapidly with the forelegs. 



One seldom sees two specimens of Formica make more than one or 

 two of these curious jerky motions when meeting each other, but when 

 specimens of any species of Lasiua meet, a succession of rapid jerks is 

 kept up for several seconds. Indeed, on uncovering an artificial nest 

 of L. //«r(^s or niger and exposing it to the light, almost every ant may 

 be seen thus jerking its whole body to its neighbours. It is a very 

 distinctive characteristic of iMsiita. An ant may be watched in its 

 progress through an artificial nest, and seen to thus salute almost 

 every ant it meets. In case of alarm, ants rush about the nest in a 

 state of great excitement, infecting every ant they meet with alarm, 

 until the whole nest is roused. 



When a nest is full of young winged $ s and J s, the workers may 

 be seen greeting them in this way, and the young $ s sometimes 

 respond, the <y s never. When a young fertile 2 has succeeded in 

 rearing a few workers, she often responds to their salutes, but an old 

 queen in a large nest never does. Lasitis fiilif/inosHfi, a somewhat 

 sluggish ant, does not make so much use of this jerky salute as do 

 nii/er, fiavus, and umbratiifi. It does not exist among the Myrmicidae, 

 hardly at all with Campnnotiis, and not at all with Tapinoma. 



Lasiiis seems to be able to express alarm, or to communicate the 

 news of a desirable find of food, etc., more by means of this salute 

 than by the play of the antennae. I have considered it worth while 

 to give a somewhat detailed account of this phenomenon, as I have 

 never seen it described in any work on the subject. 



Contribution to a list of the Macro=lepidoptera of Bucks. 



By KENNETH EAYNOR, B.A. 

 Dr. Carlier's contribution to your columns of a list of species taken 

 by himself near High Wycombe tempts me to supplement his account 

 by recording the few I have come across during the last three seasons 

 at Tingewick, m the same county. The soil here is principally gravelly 

 loam and clay, the subsoil being various. Tingewick is in the northern 

 division of the county, on the borders of Oxfordshire, and bounded on 

 the north by the river Ouse, about three miles from Buckingham. 

 The greater portion of the land is pasture, and there are three woods, 

 of which the Round Wood is about a quarter of a mile square, 

 Lenborough Wood is half a mile long and a quarter broad, whilst 

 Tingewick Wood is three-quarters of a mile long and half a mile broad. 

 The land by the Ouse is naturally swampy. I have not been here con- 

 tinuously enough to do any very regular collecting, but as so little has 



