78 Observations on various Insects 



far the most numerous portion of each colony, being those ants 

 which we see so busily employed in transporting seeds and all 

 sorts of materials into their nests or ant-hills, and which seem to 

 be never at rest. When the eggs hatch the larvae or maggots are 

 fed by these neuters, and, when they are full-grown, each spins 

 an oval, tough, light-coloured case or cocoon, in which it changes 

 to a pupa. These are erroneously termed " ants'-eggs," and in this 

 particular they differ from another genus of ants which we shall 

 notice hereafter.* 



Eight or nine species of true ants comprised in the GENUS 

 Formica have been found in this country, but the following only 

 are connected with our present subject, viz. — 



36. Formica Sanguinea {Latr.). 



Nests of this species are found on heaths in various parts of 

 the south of England in July and August. 



37. F. Flava {Latr.)— the Turf Ant— 



is abundant on heaths and in meadows, where it forms its conical 

 nest, and is found in the middle of April, the end of June, in 

 July, and the beginning of September. The other GENUS of 

 ants alluded to is named Myrmica, of which there are seven or 

 eight different kinds inhabiting Great Britain, but it is prin- 

 cipally the following species which affect pasture-lands. Like the 

 true ants, there are three different sexes, which undergo similar 

 transformations, but it is singular that the larvae or maggots spin 

 no cocoons, and are consequently naked pupae. 



38. M. PtUBRA (Linn.) — the Red Ant — 



inhabits meadows, heaths, and banks, and is the principal agent 

 in forming hillocks on pasture-lands. 



39. M. Perelegans {Ctirt.):\ 



This species is rarely found on heaths, forming colonies under 

 stones in July. 



The following appear to me to be the simplest modes of 

 ridding pasture-lands of ant-hills. Mr. Marshall, in his ' Rural 

 Economy of Norfolk,' vol. ii. p. 10, says — 



" In Norfolk they burn the ant-hills on commons, by which means they 

 get good manure from the ashes, improve the pasturage, and rid themselves of 

 a great nuisance. The plan is to cut up the ant-hills, and diy first the under 

 and then the upper sides ; they are then burned in a heap." 



* For figures and descriptions of the Horse Ant, Formica riifa, vide Curt. Brit. 

 Ent., fol. and pi. 752. 



t Ficfc Trans. Linn. Soc, vol. xxi. p. 211, for descriptions and figures of the 

 species by the author. 



