212 [September, 



Notes on the habits of Ponera contractu, Latr. -During the past year I have 

 spent a good many mornings of my holidays and week ends searching for Bi/thinus 

 (Machasrites) glabratus, Rye, at Charing, Kent. The chief result has been to enable 

 me to add to my knowledge of the habits of Ponera contractu, Latr., and perhaps 

 a few notes on the subject may be useful. 



I believe that Ponera contructa, Latr., is not nearly so rare as is generally be- 

 lieved, and that it occurs sparingly on warm banks in dry chalky situations through- 

 out Kent and Surrey ; it is, as Mr. Waterhouse has jiointed out to me, more likely 

 to be found by Coleopterists than by Hymenopferists, and so gets overlooked. But 

 for the insect to occur in any numbers growing moss seems essential, and as a rule 

 moss does not flourish in quite such dry places. 



At Charing there is (I almost ought to say there was) abundance of moss below 

 the steep, almost barren, bank of the hill where most of my searching is done, and 

 close by vegetation grows abundantly in a mossy dell or fold in the ground. Across 

 the latter spot (except during the hottest months of the summer) a small wood 

 throws its shade early in the afternoon, and good evening sweeping may occasionally 

 be done here, while on a fine September evening the air is full of small flying 

 Bracons, ants, Chalcids, and beetles, which seem to enjoy flying over the ground 

 upon which the shade has just fallen. Ant's nests abound everywhere on the hill 

 side, but Ponera and Myrmecina are almost confined to the moss below the bank, 

 and to that in the fold in the ground ; at these spots I have generally found the 

 former in any place where the moss is thick and long enough to rise above the 

 ground in a patch, in which case it is easy to pull in a lump. These patches when 

 once pulled do not, however, readily grow again, and certainly represent more than 

 a year's growth of moss, so that too vigorous collecting or even study is sure to have 

 a bad effect on the insects, and this is the chief difficulty with which I have had to 

 contend. In April the ants are to be found on a fine day in the moss as above de- 

 scribed, both at the foot of the bank and in the dell. Mixed with the workers of P. 

 contractu a few ? 9 occur, and it would seem that the insects at the time are spending 

 all their energies in getting food for themselves. I have never come across a trace of 

 anything like a nest at the time, and the ? ? are evidently not engaged in laying eggs 

 at one spot, as they occur mixed up with the workers wandering through the moss ; 

 with them may occasionally be found a single Pseluphus heisel or Bythinus glabratus. 

 The moss may also be full of other beetles, but this is a rare occurrence ; still Lam- 

 prinus saginutus, Mgcetoporus punctus, splendldus, angularis, and clavicornii, 

 Orthochxtes setiger, Trachys pumila, Apion Jitirostre, and other good things have 

 occurred in this way amongst commoner species, especially Philonthi and small 

 Staphylinidx. 



As the year progresses the $ ? become rarer, and this would seem to show that 

 they have gone down into the porous chalky ground to form their nests. This year 

 however, on June 3rd I found in or at the roots of one raised patch of moss what 

 was apparently a nest ; there were as many as six ? ^ > the largest number I have 

 ever taken, besides eggs or grubs and some twenty or thirty $ 5 5 there were also 

 three Pselaphus and two Machserites in the heart of the nest. I may here mention 

 that the beginning of June is apparently the best time for the last named insect, 

 especially after rain ; but since June 11th, 1904, when Mr. Donisthorpe and myself 

 got fourteen specimens in a very short time, I have never been able to find more than 



