NOTES ON HYMENOPTERA, 127 



Bournemouth ; I have not yet found F. rufa there. Mr. 

 Dale observed some small moths in the nest of this ant, but 

 was not so fortunate as to capture one, probably this was 

 the Tinea ochraceella ; as the nests of this species of ant are 

 numerous, it would probably repay any Lepidopterist for the 

 annoyance to which he would be necessarily subjected in 

 searching for the little moth ; some of the nests of F. con- 

 gerens are as much as five feet in diam.eter at the base, and 

 are elevated fi-om two to three feet, the colonies being quite 

 as populous as those of F. rufa. 



Formica gagates. — This species is 'now for the first time 

 added to the British list; a few specimens were taken by my 

 son, but the discovery was not made until we had returned 

 to London from Bournemouth ; it is a species widely distri- 

 buted on the Continent, being found in France, Germany, 

 Prussia, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary. The species 

 most closely resembles T. fusca, but the workers are larger, 

 blacker, and more shining; and the abdomen has a quantity 

 of erect rigid hairs; the following is a description of the 

 worker : — 



Worker. — Length 2| — 3 lines. Shining black, with the 

 mandibles, antennte and articulations of the legs rufescent ; 

 the tibiee and femora piceous; abdomen shining and sprinkled 

 with a number of erect hairs ; the scale of the petiole trun- 

 cate above and sli";htly emarmnate. 



Forinica aliena. — This species was established by Foerster, 

 in his Monograph on the Formicidce of the German pro- 

 vinces of the Khine ; Dr. Nylander doubts its being distinct 

 from F, nigra, but I am of opinion that it is a good species, 

 Dr. Mayr also considers it to be so. Only workers have been 

 taken in England, to my knowledge ; the other sexes may, 

 however, be mixed with those of T'. nigra in collections that 

 I have not seen ; I think it probable that this is the case. 



