MYRMECOPHILOUS NOTES FOR 19ir. 61 



that in this country too our buttarflies are up lafer and to bed earlier 

 than our birds. Dr. Longstaft" and Mr. Annandale have made state- 

 ments supporting this. 



(To be continued.) 



Myrmecophilous Notes for 1912. 



By H. St. J. K. DONISTHOKPE, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



FORMICID.E. 



Subfamily Ponekin.e. 



Poncia coan-tata, Latr. — On May 30th a number of § ? were 

 found in a nest of Formica fim-a at Box Hill. Six of them were intro- 

 duced into a./iiKro observation nest from Tiree, where they lived for a 

 few months, till they eventually died. They were never attacked by 

 the /'/^sc<? 5 5 , although they moved about freely in the nest. When 

 ei/ttsra 5 met a Poitera, she simply tapped it with her antennae. In 

 July ^ ^ were found under stones on the edge of the Deal sandhills. 



On September 5th I went to Box Hill to try and find c? cT » of 

 which I did not possess any specimens. Searching in moss and under 

 stone?, where the species usually occurs there, being unsuccessful, 

 I started to sweep the herbage round about. There success rewarded 

 my efforts and I captured a ^ in the first sweep. After this speci- 

 mens were swept up for about an hour, when they ceased to appear. Only 

 one 2 occurred and she had lost the wings on one side, evidently 

 having been fertilized. When placed in a tube with a ^ , the latter 

 endeavoured to embrace her without success. As far as I am aware 

 the c? of P. cuarctata has not been taken in Britain by an3'oneelse now 

 living. 



The ^' of P. piinctatissiwa has not yet been found here. I have 

 looked for it carefully in the British ant collections at Oxford and the 

 British Museum, etc., as being apterous and very ergatoid it might well 

 have been mistiiken for a ^ . Emery' gives a good figure of it in a 

 paper on ergatoid males. 



Subfamily Myrmicin.e. 



Mj/niu'vina uraiiiiiticola, Latr. — On Sept. 5th 1 found a small 

 incipient colony of this interesting little species at Box Hill, in a 

 nest of Mi/rniica scabrinndis, under a stone. It consisted of a deiilated 

 J and 8 ^ ^ , which were situated in a small chamber in the middle 

 of the Mi/niiica nest. On the same day I swept a large number 

 of M. tiraniinicola J J in company with the P. coan-tata 3 g recorded 

 above, but no winged 2 $ occurred. I may mention that many 

 Proctotriipidae were also swept, some with dark wings like the 

 Mi/niieciua and some with clear wings like the Ponera, which, respec- 

 tively, much resembled both species. On September 7th I found a ^ 

 of M. (iraniinicola in a nest of Laxiiis flanis at Sandown, Isle of Wight. 

 P have before recorded many instances when this ant has occurred 

 with other species. It seems probal:)le that the 2 of this species may 

 often seek the protection of another ant's nest to found her colony. 



1 Ffstsch, f., J. Rosenthal. Leipzicr, 1906, p. 37. 



2 Ent. Rec, 1909, p. 258, 1912, p. 4, etc., 



