MYKMECOPHILOUS NOTES FOR 1012. 65 



queen in a nest of L. alioins. These are instances in nature, where 

 the 9. has sought a nest of olienns in which to found her colony, and 

 has been accepted by the ^ ^ . It is probable that either the latter 

 then killed their own queen, or the )iii.vtn-<nnhratn>i ? did so herself. 

 I have before recorded^^ that I found some imibratiis ^ ^ in a nest of 

 aliemis at Weybridge, on July 22nd, 1911, and suggested that a ? 

 iniibratiis may have been present. From the above observations it is 

 fairly certain that this was the case. 



Formica riifa, L.— On March 29th Crawley and I found a very 

 large nest, which measured 6ft. across, at St. George's Hill, Weybridge. 

 It contained vast quantities of 3 and 2 larv.-e and cocoons. On 

 April 17th I found <? <? at large on fir posts, at Wellington College. 

 It is evident that the sexes were very early this year. BignelP"' records 

 winged ? 5 on a nest on April 22nd, 1897, near Shaughbridge. The 

 earliest date given by ForeP'' is May 30th, 



F. riifa var. riifo-prctti'nsix, Forel. — On September 8th I found two 

 nests of this variety at Parkhurst Forest, I. of W. They were situated 

 on a banlv, and were constructed of finer materials than the riifa nests 

 in the neighbourhood, and, in fact, looked more like I'xsi'cta nests. 

 The ? ^ were of a yellow-red colour with a neat black spot on the 

 pronotum, this is very distinct in some specimens, which also have a 

 smaller black spot on the mesonotum. I have seen specimens taken 

 by Butlei-at Bexhill, and by Best Gardner in Glamorgan, and Wheeler 

 tells me he found it at Lowood, on Lake Windermere. 



F. sa!iiiui)iea, Latr. — On July 10th an attack by this species on a 

 colony of L. iiiiibratiis was observed at Weybridge. The nest of the 

 latter was situated under a gorse root some twelve paces away from 

 the sawjuinea nest. A row of saiKininea ^ S stood outside the 

 niiibrotiis nest on guard, while others had penetrated under the root, 

 and a large number of dead innbratus were lying about. Many of the 

 savfinuica ^ ^ had ^ ^ of the attacked species fastened to their legs 

 and antennt^. Forel" describes similar forays on colonies of L. nii/er 

 and L. jianis by aaniiiiinea. Wheeler^*" remarks that — " Even scaujuinea 

 shows a tendency to lapse into the ancient instinct of plundering the 

 nests of different species of ants indiscriminately," and records a foray 

 by the American sub-species riibicinula on a variety of Mynnica 

 scabri)i()ilis. 



On July 15th, when again at Weybridge, a number of soni/idnea 

 ^ ^ were observed returning to their nest with fiisro cocoons in their 

 jaws. A few t'usca ^ § were noticed in the neighbourhood in flight 

 and on the top of grass stems, some with their own cocoons in their 

 jaws, so evidently a genuine slave-raid had taken place. 



7". e.i-Hecta, Nyl. — A small typical nest was found near Forest 

 Lodge at Nethy Bridge, Inverness-shire, on May 5th. This is another 



" E)it. Bee, 1912, p. 7. 



1' Ent. Mo. Mnq., 1897, p. 141. 



i» loc. cit., p. 408. 



17 loc. cit., p. 363. 



1** Bull. Amer. Mus, Nat. Hist., xxi., 1905, p. 11. 



