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discussious at municipal meetings, and a good deal of money 

 seems to have been spent on attempted remedies. So far, the 

 most successful antidote seems to have been a sheep dip.' The 

 report and correspondence I'ef erred to above do not, I regret to 

 say, give sufficient details, but I gather that this plague of 

 ants has been going on for a couple of years at least. It must 

 have been in full swing, so to speak, during the autumn months 

 of last year, when the meetings of the British Association were 

 being held in South Africa. Some of the Fellows of the Entomo- 

 logical Society present here to-night had the good fortune to 

 be present also at those meetings, and I should like to ask 

 them whether the occurrence of a plague of ants in the Observ- 

 atory district of Cape Town came to their knowledge, for it 

 seems to have been a serious, I ma.y say a very serious, matter. 

 To us here in England it would appear almost absurd that a 

 mere increase in insect life should cause any great trouble, 

 but any one who has lived in the tropics, or in any country 

 where insects are numerous, or apt under certain conditions to 

 become so, will bear me out in the statement, that they are a 

 very real and grave cause of trouble and annoyance. It would 

 seem that the nuisance caused by this plague of ants in the 

 district mentioned has led to the appointment of a special Ant 

 Committee, whose business it is to consider ways and means of 

 dealing with it. Mr. Rothney's correspondent, Mr. Timber- 

 lake, writes : ' Mr. Hartley, who is a friend of mine, and the 

 chairman on the Ant Committee, is in the office, and I am 

 now dictating this letter. I told him I would like to send 

 home some specimens^ and with great difficulty he has managed 

 to get hold of the queen, the big one in the phial which we 

 sen-j you last mail. The crowds of little ones are, of course, the 

 scourge. £300 was spent last year in attempts to destroy, but 

 without success. The house, garden, and the whole place is 

 overrun with them ; trees, beds, and everything. Numbers of 

 people have left the locality, and it has been very difficult to 

 locate the queen. The ants are traced to a saucer-like cavity 

 just below the surface not deeper than an inch, where there 

 are hundreds of eggs, but no sign of the queen. I do not 

 know whether you can suggest anything or give any advice 

 as to the destruction of this fearful plague, but if so you 



