NOTES ON THE BRITISH MYRMECOPHILOUS FAUNA. 17 



Myrmica laevinodis in Wicken Fen. In the same nest the beetle 

 Myrmcdonia collaris occuvred in some numbers. They bear a very 

 strong superficial resemblance to each other, both being of the same 

 colour. 



Pnictotnqddae. — Lat/ijnodcs ixilUdus, Boh. — I have taken this 

 species in the nest of Lasiiis fidininmms at Oxshott. 



Bctlnjlus formicarius, Curt. — I took a specimen of this little creature 

 in the nest of Lasins fulujinusus at Oxshott. 



Litus cijmpseiis, Hal. — In May, 1901, 1 bred a number of ? s of this 

 species out of my observation nest of La.sn/.s niuer from Portland. 

 Mr. Enock, to whom I sent them, and who named them for me tells 

 me it is one for whose nidus he has looked everywhere. These 

 creatures live in the eggs of other insects, and Mr. Enock thinks it 

 highly probable that they bred out from the eggs of the ant. 



Diajnia aeqnata, Thoms. — I took a specimen of this creature on 

 April 4th, 1901, out of a patch of Formica riifa at Weybridge, 

 " massing " on their hillock. Mr. Morley who named it for me, tells 

 me he took a specimen on April 2nd, 1899, by beating near a nest of 

 Foniiica rufa, in Bentley Woods. 



Lepidoptera. — Mijniiecuciia ucli raceella , Tgstr. — Of this species 

 Buchanan White writes in the Scottish Natuyalist (vol. i., 1871-2, p. 

 2.58), " About the end of June, and in July, if w^e examine the blades 

 of grass in the vicinity of a nest of the hill ant, in Perthshire or other 

 parts of the north of Scotland, we shall probably see several specimens of 

 a small yellowish-ochreous moth perched upon them. Sometimes when 

 disturbed they get on the nest and enter some of the doors ; the ants 

 appear, strange to say, to be generally rather frightened of them. 

 The eggs are laid in, or on, the nest, and the caterpillars, which 

 are white with brown heads, and with a few scattered hairs, feed upon 

 the decaying vegetable matter of which the nest is composed. As, 

 however, a fat juicy larva would be a morsel too tempting to escape 

 the jaws of the ants, the caterpillar constructs long galleries of small 

 twigs, leaves, etc., fastened together with silk, and thereby protects 

 itself from its hosts. The caterpillar lives during the autumn, winter 

 and spring, and about the beginning of June assumes the pupal state 

 inside the gallery. The puparium is about a third of an inch in 

 length, slender, and yellowish-brown in colour. In Britain, ili. 

 ochmcedla has only been found in Scotland." Wasmann (loc. cit., p. 

 170) gives F. rufa and F. jiratcnsis as its hosts. I have taken it at 

 Rannoch, at the end of June, by stirring up the hillocks made by 

 Formica rufa, when the insect tlies out. 



Diptera. — t'eratopof/on imjrjiiecojdiilua, Egger. — I took a $ of this 

 species in a nest of Formica rufa at Oxshott, in 1898. On May 14th, 

 1901, I bred a 3 out of my "observation nest" of 7''. rufa. This 

 species is new to Britain. 



Plnjllouxjza securicorjiis, Fin. — In the Fnt. Mo. May., xxx., p. 14G, 

 Mr. Yerrall introduced this species as British, and mentions that he 

 took some «? s at Braemar in July, 1873, by sweeping over nests of 

 Formica rufa. I have taken $ s in the nests of Ladua fulii/inosus and 

 F. rufa, at Oxshott. In the former nest I have noticed the flies 

 coming out of the small hole at the end of the entrance of the nest 

 into the tree. On April 29th and 30th I captured J s which had bred 

 out of my " observation nest " of F. rufa. On May 2nd I captured 

 another <J which had just emerged from my nest, the wings not being 



