On the Domestic Habits of a Species of Ant. 
G5 
XIII. On the Domestic Habits of a Minute Species of Ant. 
By J. Bostock, Esq., M. D., F. R. S., Sfc. 
[Read November 7, 1836.] 
The members of the Entomological Society are, I believe, in pos- 
session of certain facts respecting the recent appearance, in various 
parts of the metropolis, of what has been termed the House Ant ; 
and I propose, with their permission, to lay before them a few ad- 
ditional facts on this subject, which have either fallen under my 
own inspection, or which have been derived from what I consider 
unexceptionable testimony. 
I was informed about two years ago, by Mr. Spence, of the ap- 
pearance of these animals at Brighton, who stated that they were 
in such numbers, as to have excited very general attention, and I 
had received some vague accounts of their having been seen in 
London, when, in the course of the last spring, I learned that they 
had made their appearance in my own house. They were found in 
a cupboard, at the end of the kitchen opposite to the fire-place, 
where stores were occasionally kept, and also on a range of shelves 
contiguous to the cupboard. I may observe, that the wall to 
which these shelves were attached, was sensibly heated by the fire 
in the contiguous house, and that the animals were the most nume- 
rous in that part where the warmth was the most considerable. In 
the month of June I had the cupboard and shelves removed, and 
also a dresser connected with them, when in all the parts where 
any of the wood-work had been let into the walls, or even where 
it had been in contact with the plaister, the animals were found in 
prodigious quantities. They were obviously of two very different 
sizes, one considerably larger than the other, the larger kind con- 
stituting perhaps one-sixth part of the whole ; there were also a 
very great number of the larvae. 
The wood-work having been carefully scraped and cleansed, and 
the cavities of the wall filled up with plaister, the cupboard, &c. 
were replaced ; when shortly after, I was informed, that the ani- 
mals were observed, in very great quantities, in the floor of the 
kitchen near the fire-place. The flags which were contiguous to 
the fire being raised up, the sand below them was absolutely 
swarming with the animals, and upon examining the boards of the 
floor, they, as well as the timbers on which they rested, were found 
to be thickly covered with the animals and their larvae. Some of 
the beams appeared to be in a decaying state, and even to exhibit 
vox.. II. 
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