b THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



are probably either C. flex\iom or C. hiisuta, in many nests of this same 

 ant at Whitsand Bay. They are not true Myrmecocorous seeds, as 

 they do not possess food bodies. White'' records this ant " at Brans- 

 combe, S. Devon, manifesting harvesting instincts"! It would be 

 very interesting if they were also Cardaniiiie seeds he observed. 

 T. (■(E<pitHiii is abundant at Whitsand Bay, and I always hope that 

 Ani'i-fiates atratiiliis and Stroiu/i/loi/jiathns testaci'u^, two parasitic ants, 

 which live in the nests of T.cacsiiitiiiii,v>n\\ be found there. We went down 

 in July to try and find them and were joined by Keys. The very dry 

 hot weather was unfavourable for us. The ground was baked up, and 

 the stones over the nests were so hot during the heat of the day, that 

 they burned our hands if held on them long. Only a few ants could 

 be seen, and we had to dig up the nests to find anything. A number 

 oi 3 s and winged $ s were secured, and a deillated J found in one nest, 

 in which were no winged sexes, was brought home with many of her 



§ s as an observation nest. This ant chiefly occurs on or near the 

 sea-coasts with us, but the following inland localities have been 

 recorded, Hampstead Heath, Shirley, Chobham, Plumstead Wood, and 

 Wellington College. It is not uncommon in the New Forest near 

 Beaulieu Road Station, and I have found it at Tubney near Oxford. 

 Subfamily DoLinocLERiNyE. — 'Tapi)i()iiin erraticiun, Latr. — On I\Iay 

 18th, I took a small colony in the ground at Woking. It consisted of 

 a deiilated ? and about 25 ^ s. I fixed them up in a small plaster 

 observation nest. The $ laid eggs but they were always eaten by the 



5 s, in spite of their being supplied with plenty of food. In my 

 former** experiment with a queenless nest, the pupae it contained and 

 eggs laid by one of the ^ s were also devoured. 



Subfamily Camponotin.e. — Lasiiin fiili;/inosiis, Ltr. — On July 27th 

 3 s and winged $ s were found swarming on the shoots and branches 

 growing out of a tree stump, which contamed a large nest of this ant. 

 Copulation took place on the branches and no marriage flight was 

 observed. Crawley and I have recently'' shown that J s of this species 

 must have been fertilized by their brothers in the nest at Darenth 

 Wood. It occurs in Harewood Forest, the only record I know for N, 

 Hants. Morice has taken it at Ilillmorton, in Northamptonshire. 

 This is absolutely the only record I know for any ants from that 

 county. 



Lasiiis niijer, L. — On August 9th I made the following notes on a 

 marriage flight of this species, which took place on that day at 

 Folkestone. A large colony occurred in one of the pillars of a gate- 

 way to a house in a street in the town. The ants entered the masonry 

 by a hole in the mortar at the base of the pillar. At 5 o'clock in the 

 afternoon the ^ s were much excited running all over the pavement, 

 and up and down the pillar. A few winged ants wore out, and going 

 in and out of the entrance to the nest. At G o'clock thousands of J s 

 and winged $ s appeared. They emerged from the hole, swarming all 

 over the pillar, and climbing to the top, and on the railings and shrubs 

 in the garden. A very few couples were observed in copula ; these flew 

 away together. Most of the winged ants flew off separately ; they rose 



1. Ants and Their Waya, 1895, p. 242. 



» Ent. Jiec, 1909, p. '258. 



" Paper read at the Meeting of the Ent. Soc. Lond., Nov. 1.5th, 1911. 



