62 APPLE LEAVES, APHIS ATTENDANTS WASPS. 



Latr.) which excavates its burrows in the trunks of old and 

 decaying trees, in which it is sometimes met with in countless 

 numbers. And I am not without suspicions this may be a variety 

 of that species rendered darker in its colors by being more ex- 

 posed to the light and air. It is much darker colored than the 

 species alluded to, its thorax being deep chestnut red. and its legs 

 black, with the thighs tinged with chestnut red, but always 

 darker than the thorax, instead of being of the same color as we 

 generally find them in F. hcrculeana. These and other differences 

 to be specified, appear to be constant, occurring in all the speci- 

 mens which I find attending the aphides of the apple and other 

 trees, and induce me to regard it as a distinct species, which I 

 propose to distinguish under the name of 



The New-York Ant (Form ; ca Nov boracensis). The neuters are uniformly 

 about 0.30 long. The body and legs, as in F. hercuhaia are covered with very 

 short fine appressed hairs, which on the head and body are interspersed with 

 a few longer erect bristles, whereof several are clustered upon the elevated pos- 

 terior part of the thorax, others stand out from the edge of the wedge like scale 

 at the base of the abdomen like eye-lashes, and others are arranged in transverse 

 rows upon the abdomen, of which there is one upon each side of each suture. 

 The scale at the base of the abdomen, instead of being the same red or yellow 

 color as the thorax, or only somewhat dusky at its summit, is here black, 

 with its base only sometimes dark red. The posterior face of this scale in F. 

 hcrculeana has a broad shallow concavity, like the hollow of the hand, whilst 

 here it is merely flattened, or in some instances has a small concavity in its 

 middle. In the preserved specimen, the edges of the abdominal segments, 

 especially the basal one, are often membranous and of a pale dull yellow color; 

 and a variety occurs in which the anterior suture is impressed or constricted. 



In addition to ants, different kinds of wasps are common, 

 hovering about the foliage of trees infested with plant-lice. Most 

 of these appear to be attracted to them on the same errand with 

 the ants, namely, to regale themselves upon the honey-dew, with- 

 out molesting them further than to obtain this fluid. Thus I 

 have observed our common Blue wasp,. (Pelopceus cceruhus, Lin- 

 naeus) the base of whose abdomen is contracted into a long slen- 

 der penduncle, standing beside a colony of lice, and turning its 

 head from side to side, gently touching their backs with its anten- 

 nae, hereby tickling and causing them to eject their honey dew, 

 and their mouths following in the track of the antennae, sipping 

 up this fluid. Our common hornet or " yellow jacket"' ( Vespa 



