12 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



that these observations show that the peaceable neighbourhood with 

 strange ant species is to be looked on as the customary and original 

 condition of [jeptothorax. 



I took two small nests of L. acervonim at Weybridge, on March 7th, 

 from under bark of small fir stumps. They were from quite different 

 stumps, at some distance from each other. They both contained a $ , 

 ^ s, and some young larvse. I put them all into a small plaster nest. 

 They were quite friendly together and joined forces at once. All the 

 larvae were collected together into one heap in a corner, the 2 s sitting 

 on them surrounded by the ^ s. 



On April 4th, no dead ants were present, which proves there had 

 not been any fighting. By April 15th, eggs had been laid, and some 

 of the larvte were quite large. On April 17th, several of the larvae had 

 changed to pupte. On June 1st, a winged ? had hatched. This, of 

 course, was from one of the larger larvae taken in nature. I have 

 never bred a $ from eggs laid in captivity in any of my nests. Many 

 ants feed largely on the juices obtained from Aplddae and Cocculae, 

 both subterranean (true myrmecophilous species), and species found on 

 plants. This food they are unable to get in captivity, and it may be 

 that this is partly used to rear the 2 larvae. I consider the fact that 

 I never reared any Pseudogynes in the F. mwntinea nest in which I bred 

 numbers of Lomerhuxa stnunoaa for two years, lends considerable 

 support to Wasmann's theory, why Pseudogynes are produced in nests 

 of that ant long infested by the beetle. The workers bred in this 

 nest, were somewhat small, but were never Pseudogynes. If the 

 latter were simply produced by the ants neglecting their brood, on 

 account of the presence of the beetle and its larva, I should have 

 obtained some in my nest. The colony from which 1 took this nest 

 in nature, contained over 60 Loniechiina, and the ? s were all of a 

 small size. Consequently, the beetle must have been present for some 

 time. Now, if as Wasmann explains, the Pseudogynes are produced 

 by the ants trying to turn larvfe which they have started to bring up 

 as queens, into workers, to replace the loss of the latter caused by the 

 ravages of the beetle, then the fact that queens are seldom, or never, 

 reared in confinement, possibly for the reason I have given, will 

 account for the fact that I never reared Pseudogynes in captivity, 

 the ants being unable to bring up larvae as queens in the first place. 



Lord Avebury" was only able to quote one case wnth all his ants' 

 nests, where queens came to maturity from eggs laid in captivity. 

 He remarks : " The nest had been richly supplied with animal food, 

 which may possibly account for the fact." To return to my ocenoruin 

 nest, a number of the ants died in the summer, during my various 

 absences from home. On September 29th there were present 24 ^ s, 

 1 2 , and a number of small larvae. On October BOth, when I gave 

 them a dead house fly, much excitement was noticed. The ^ s 

 appeared to signal to each other by striking the bottom and sides of 

 the plaster nest with their abdomens. The condition of the nest is 

 much the same to-day as it was in October, the larvje are little larger 

 than they were then. 



Mijniiecina latreillei, Curt. — On May 31st I took a small nest of 

 this rare little ant at Box Hill. It was situated in a hole in a small 



* Aitts, Bees, and Wasps, 1882, p. 40. 



