88 COLEOPTERA. 



at least several colonies of the ant, place three or four of 

 them around the hillock on its sloping sides : treat all the 

 nests in the same manner. The nests must be visited as fre- 

 quently as practicable during the greater part of the year ; 

 nearly all the beetles enumerated in the subjoined list as co- 

 habiting with this ant were found either on the under sur- 

 face of the stones or beneath them. Myrmedonia humeralis, 

 however, I have only once met with in a solitary individual, 

 beneath the stones ; but occasionally in some numbers under 

 leaves and at the roots of grass in the immediate vicinity of 

 the nest. 



As spring advances and the ants betake themselves to 

 labour at the extension of the hillock, a piece of old, rough, 

 dry wood should be placed on the summit ; this will in a few 

 days be gradually covered by the newly brought material, 

 and should be occasionally withdrawn and smartly tapped 

 over a large sheet of paper or cloth ; it was thus I succeeded 

 in taking Dinarda Maerkelii, and, in the autumn, Mono- 

 tonia angusticollis and conicicollis. 



The examination should always be made early in the 

 morning, before ten ; in the heat of the day I never met with 

 success. A fine morning succeeding a wet day after dry 

 weather is peculiarly favourable, and should always be 

 devoted to a trip to the ants' nests. 



In the sultry months of July and August, the ants' nests 

 should not be touched : my searches have ever been fruitless 

 at that period of the year ;* the young brood of ants, upon 



* Although the only specimens of Dinarda Maerkelii I have yet 

 secured occurred on the 13th of July and 24th of August, I am never- 

 theless disposed to think that had I used the pieces of wood, above 

 recommended, at an earlier period of the year, I should probably have 

 met with it more abundantly, as on the continent it is always taken 

 early in the spring, and occasionally appears again late in the autumn. 



