THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 303 



against it, and, for the time being, apparentl}'' extinguished 

 the last feeble ray that flickered around Fnlgora ; but it was 

 not quite extinguished, and has, I am rejoiced to observe, 

 once more burst out in all its former brilliancy. My friend 

 Mr, Evans, of the Admiralty, had, fortunately, a son resident 

 at Honduras, and to him he applied for information on the 

 subject. The insect does not appear to have been very com- 

 mon in the locality where Mr. Evans resided, but he replies, 

 " At length I have obtained the insect, and it is decidedly 

 luminous," Such is the reply of the son of a well-known 

 Entomologist, one who has a perfect knowledge of the insect, 

 and one who does not mistake Pyrophorus for Fulgora later- 

 n aria. — Frederick Sni iih . 



227. No JVnsps at Bournemouth in 1865. — There are no 

 wasps here. Last year I passed the month of August here 

 at Bournemouth, and so numerous were wasps in this lo- 

 cality that I concluded it was one of the most prolific spots 

 for those insects that I had become acquainted with ; the com- 

 mons in the neighboinhood, the woods and cliffs, were alive 

 with them. This year I have not, during the entire month, 

 seen a single wasp. — Id. 



228. British Species of Ants at Bournemouth. — Last year, 

 on my return to town, 1 discovered, amongst a host of un- 

 examined specimens of Formicida?, a few examples of the 

 Formica exsecta of Nylander : the following are my subsequent 

 observations on that insect. Formica exsecta is very abun- 

 dant at and in the neighbourhood of Bournemouth : it belongs 

 to the section of building ants : its nest is usually composed 

 of bits of dried grass, straws, small portions of twigs, &c ; its 

 nests never attain the dimensions of those of F. rufa, seldom 

 exceeding a foot in diameter at the base. Nests are found in 

 open spaces in fir woods, occasionally at road-sides, amongst 

 bushes of heath or furze, and also, at times, on exposed open 

 heaths : when a nest is disturbed the ants attack furiously ; 

 their courage and pertinacity are admirable ; their file is 

 sharp, and their hold-on most determined, so much so that, 

 on endeavouring to remove them, the head frequently re- 

 mains clinging to the hand when torn frou) the body. Au- 

 gust is too late a period of the year to obtain the males and 

 females ; neither could I, by the most assiduous search, find 

 a single example of either of those sexes : in Finland, Dr. 



