1900.] 99 



was hanging; on the queen's leg. As all the pupae in the nest had 

 hatched, and there were no larv?e to occupy the workers, I gave the 

 nest some niger eggs, which they carried in. These eggs all hatched 

 before November, so that there will be no difficulty in tracing the off- 

 spring of the new queen. 



At the moment of waiting (February 15th, 1909), the nest is be- 

 ginning to become active again after the winter. The nkfer larvse are 

 all w^ell-grown, and by the time the queen begins laying should be 

 ready to change into pupfe. 



The nest in which the ants have been since last July, consists of 

 two panes of glass, one foot square, with slips of thick glass, f in. 

 wide, round the edges, so as to form a frame, leaving a space of nearly 

 \ in. between the upper and lower glass. On the bottom glass is a 

 layer of plaster of Paris, reducing the interval betw^een the glass panes 

 to \ inch. The space between is filled with fine earth, in which the 

 ants have made tunnels and chambers. The layer of plaster retains 

 moisture so w^ell, that the nest has not required to be damped since 

 the end of last September. 



I have corresponded with Prof. A. Forel on the subject of these 

 mixed colonies. He sent me in return a copy of his " Lettre a la Soc. 

 Ent. de Belgique," in which he mentions a case observed by him of 

 Lasius mixtus workers running among L. fuliginosiis, quite amicably. 

 With regard to this I have myself observed workers of either flnvus or 

 umhratus living among L. fulitjinosus. 



Tollerton Hall, Nottingham : 

 March, 1909. 



ON THE MIARUS MICROS OF BRITISH CATALOGUES, 



TOGETHER WITH A 



TABLE OF THE BRITISH SPECIES OF THE GENUS. 



BY E. A. BUTLER, B.A., B. Sc, F. E. S. 



Much doubt has existed for many years as to the identity of this 

 insect and its claims to a place in the British list. In the year 18G5, 

 Mr. Crotch (Ent., ii, 220) mentioned two specimens as having been 

 taken by Mr. T. V. Wollaston at Whitsand Bay, Cornwall. He 

 described the insect, however, as being distinguished from M. campa- 

 nulce by the ohsoletely punctate-striate elytra, and in accordance with 

 this, the analytical table in Fowder's " Coleoptera of the British 

 Islands " places micros in a second main division, characterized partly 



I 2 



