MYRMECOPHILOUS NOTES FOE 1911. 7 



straight into the air, going up so high that they were lost to sight. 

 The ^ s helped some of them to start, tapping them with their 

 antennis, and pushing them to the edge of the top of the pillar. More 

 2 s than S s occurred. By 6.25 nearly every single winged ant had 

 disappeared. Some few 5 s were already on the ground without 

 wings. A marriage flight of this species was observed by two of my 

 friends the same afternoon at Margate, and Seaview, in the Isle of 

 Wight. On August 28th I noticed a marriage flight at Dover, and on 

 my return to Folkestone the same afternoon another was seen there. 

 Hubner writes^" : " It is requisite that the temperature of the air 

 should be at the 15° or 16° Eeaumur (67° F.) to allow of our witnessing 

 the departure of the males and females." It is evident that the ants 

 are affected by some atmospheric influence, and it would be interesting 

 to find out over how large an area they are affected at the same time. 



Lasius ni(/er, L., subsp. alienua, Forst. — A nest was dug up at Wey- 

 bridge on July 22nd. It contained plenty of ^ s and small cocoons, and 

 some 3 s, but no winged $ s. The ground was very hard and dry 

 and no dealated $ could be found. 



L. jinibratHs ^ s occurred with the L. alie?itis. It is possible that a 

 dealated L. uinbratas $ may have been present, as Crawley" has shown 

 that L. niger will readily accept L. nmbratus J s. 



On August 20th Crawley and I found this subspecies abundant in 

 the cliff' at St. Margaret's Bay. In one colony many winged $ s 

 occurred, but no 5" s; in another very few winged $ s, but more S s. 



Lasiiis flavus, Fab. — On September 15th many nests occurred under 

 stones on the small Island in Tobermorey Bay. Winged J s and rf s 

 were present, larvte and cocoons. In one nest a dealated 5 and eggs. 

 Many of the ^ s were large and dark. Similar nests were found on the 

 Isle of Eigg. 



Foniiica fnsca, L. — Many nests under stones occurred on the 

 Tobermorey Island, and on Eigg a very small race was found. All the 

 ^ s were exceedingly' small, the nest was under a stone, but the ground 

 underneath was too strong to dig it up properly, so no $ was found. 

 I sent specimens to Forel, and he writes — " (Isle of Eigg), Formica 

 fnsca, Li. Je possede des exemplaires aussi petits de la F. fnxca. lis 

 sont frequents dans les lieux froids. C'est I'eftet de la denutrition." 

 A nest of F. fnsca under the bark of a fallen tree at Helensburgh, on 

 September 21st, contained winged 2 s and g s. 



Foniiica fnsca, L., \a,v. /nsco-riifibaybis, Forel, Avas found at Box Hill 

 and Folkestone. 



Formica rtifa, L. — I have a little more evidence on the founding 

 of colonies in F'. fusca nests by 2 s of this species. On June 10th at 

 Rannoch, in the Black Wood, I found a dead dealated i*. rnfa 2 in a 

 F. fusca nest under a stone. It had evidently entered the nest and had 

 been killed by the F. fnsca ^ s. On June 1-lth, high up on the 

 mountain at Rannoch where no F. rnfa nests occur, a dealated 2 F. 

 rnfa was observed walking round a stone over a i* . fnsca nest. She 

 eventually got under the stone and entered the nest. It was a small 

 colony of F. fnsca. I am unable to say if she was accepted, as I was 

 unable to stay any longer. 



On May 6th I introduced a dealated F. rnfa 2 from W'ellington 



M The Nat. Hist, of Ants, Eug. trans., 1820, p. 99. 

 " Ent. i^lo. Mag., 1909, p. 94. 



