MYRMECOPHILOUS NOTES. 13 



ilint. By hitting the flint with another stone over a sheet of paper, 

 I shook out all the contents, which consisted of one ? , many ^ s, eggs, 

 and young larvae. I took them home and placed them in a small 

 plaster nest. On May 8th I found another smaller nest, also in a 

 hollow flint, m the same locality. These I placed in the same plaster 

 nest as the others. Unlike the Leptot/iora.v, however, they would not 

 mix, and the 2 and ^ s of the new colony were killed by the old ^ s. 

 More eggs were laid by the old $ , and fresh ^ s were reared. To-day 

 (December 1st) there are a number of fair-sized larvae present, and the 

 ants are all well. This little species is generally found singly, and the 

 winged sexes may be swept off grass in the autumn. The worker 

 frequently occurs in company with other ants. I have found it in the 

 nests of F. fnsva, L. fiani^, and L. niiier. There are very few records 

 of the finding of a complete colony in this country. Lord Avebury, I 

 believe, found a colony in Kent. Farren White" gives an account of 

 a nest near Dursley, which consisted of ^ s, a dejllated 5 , many ^ s, 

 and larva? of different sizes. Martineauf records nests in dead tree 

 stumps at Colwich, Staft's., and Selsby, Gloster. 



I'oncra n,arctata, Ltr. — On May 1st and 8th I found small colonies 

 of this ant under flints at Box Hill. They contained five and three 

 deiilated 2 s and a small number of ^ s. I established a little colony 

 of four 2 s and some ^ s in a small plaster nest at home. Thej' were 

 not a success, and eventually all perished. They would not eat the 

 honey I gave them. A few small flies were devoured by the $ s, but 

 they gradually all died off, the 5 s not laying any eggs. On 

 September 27th I took five winged $ s and a few ^ s in a nest of 

 Lanins fulifihtostis at Darenth Wood. It not unfrequentlj' occurs in 

 nests of other ants, but according to Wasmann it has no strict 

 connection with them. I took it in a nest of F. fusca at''= Doddington, 

 in Kent. Mr. W. E. Sharp has shown it to me from the nest of L. 

 jictnis at Stoat's Nest. Jansonf and Shepperd both found it in nests 

 of L. faliiiinosus at Highgate. Chitty]: states that Kent, east of the 

 Medway, is the headquarters of this ant in Britain. This is hardly the 

 case, the insect having been found at Liverpool, Manchester, South 

 Shields, Sutton, W^arwick, Weybridge, Shere, Gomshall, Brighton, Isle 

 of Wight, Exeter, Plymouth, Mount Edgecombe, Cornwall, etc. ! 



Fonera punctatissiiiia, Roger. — At the end of July, Mr. C. J, C. Pool 

 sent me some winged ants from Portsmouth, which, he informed me, 

 were swarming in a scullery. These turned out to be $ s of P. 

 punctatimma. When I went to Southsea in August, he took me to 

 this scullery, and I found the ants were still present in numbers. 

 This went on for several weeks, the ants being chiefly found 

 on a window facing the street. Much search failed to find 

 the nest, but we noticed a grating at the back which connected 

 the scullery with a bakehouse. Here we obtained permission to 

 hunt, but still we could not find the headquarters. A few 

 winged J s were observed in the bakery, but no ^ s were found at 

 all. The baker told us he sometimes noticed small ants crawling about, 



* I.e., p. 247. 



t Entom., 1901, p. 232. 



* Ent. Rec, 1902, p. 16. 



t Ants and Their Ways, 1895, p. 238. 

 t Ent. Mo. Mag., 1903, p. 283. 



