300 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



account of their intelligence, industry and peculiar economy; 

 but when these qualities are employed to your detriment you 

 look at them in a very different light. I lately, with a friend, 

 explored a large wood about eight miles from here ; every 

 tree-trunk that was examined disclosed hundreds of the red 

 ant coursing up and down. No wonder we only found one 

 larva in the chinks of the bark. We then went to work 

 beating into our umbrellas, but found these active gentry 

 quite as thick among the branches as they Jiad been on the 

 boles of the trees, for every blow of the stick brought down 

 scores of them ; and when a stray larva now and then ap- 

 peared an interesting struggle ensued among the ants as to 

 which was to have him. Sometimes one would get hold of a 

 poor larva by the head, and begin to run him off, when 

 another ant would seize the other extremity ; and it was 

 surprising to see how much stretching the larva would 

 undergo in these struggles. This might be amusing enough 

 with common larvae, but when one worthy of attention was 

 seized it became another matter. These active fellows 

 seemed all over the wood, much thicker even than they were 

 last year ; and when luncheon time came it was laughable to 

 see them picking up the crumbs, frequently hurrying along 

 with pieces three or four times their own size. That they 

 destroy large numbers of larvae and pupae of lepidopterous 

 insects I fully believe, as the paucity of our captures proved. 

 Another wood, six miles from Gloucester, swarms with the 

 black ant, and their huge hills may be found in every 

 direction. At this place we found these fellows altogether 

 too much for us, for in their active investigations they 

 swarmed all over us, and insinuated themselves under our 

 clothing, when, one of us getting a sharp bite on a very 

 tender part of the person, we beat a retreat. These insects, 

 however, are not confined to the woods here, but frequently 

 occur on hedges with no woods near. I was obser\ing a 

 large nest of E. Lanestris the other evening, and was sur- 

 prised to see my brown friends promenading about over the 

 nest and larvae, which were walking or lying about, but 

 which they left quite unmolested, though the ants walked 

 over heaps of them, an irritated or tickled larva sometimes 

 jerking one off. With ants so numerous in this locality, it is 

 not surprising that they are in my own and neighbours' 



