various Sj^ecics of British Ants. 153 



neuters, as since that time there has been no pupa of the other 

 sexes. From all which I have observed the following appears to 

 be the history, at least in part, of Formica rufa ; and the other 

 species agree in all particulars excepting time of appearance, 

 some being later. 



About the middle of February, should the weather prove mild, 

 they begin to rouse from the torpid state in which they pass the 

 winter ; the neuters, and a few females having remained in the 

 nest during that period, the latter being impregnated the previous 

 summer, as I found them on dissection in the first week in April, 

 full of eggs, about which time the labour of constructing the nest 

 commences, and by the end of the month it is finished, and eggs 

 of males and females laid ; but whether those eggs differ from the 

 eggs of neuters I cannot say. At the beginning of May larvja are 

 found, which change to the pupa state by the 10th; by the 18th 

 legs and wings begin to be observable, and by the end of the 

 month the sexes are easily distinguished. About the 4th of 

 June the perfect insects appear, at which time no pupae of neuters 

 are to be found ; but by the 18th they are found in numbers, by 

 which time all the males and females are developed, after which 

 the neuters continue to appear up to the end of tlie season, as I 

 found plenty of pupos on the 5th of August. So that it appears 

 the eggs of males and females are first laid, or if laid at the same 

 time as the neuters are more quickly developed ; the females when 

 impregnated do not deposit their eggs until the following spring, 

 or if they deposit the first year, all the progeny are neuters, as no 

 males or females will be found in the nest after June or the be- 

 ginning of July, and then only an odd one or two will be met 

 with ; the impregnated females pass the winter in the nest in a 

 torpid state, and are the young of the previous year, as I found 

 one with part of the wing remaining ; and all the males perish 

 after the season of copulation. It has been stated, that the neuters 

 liberate the perfect insects from the ])upa cases ; they may indeed 

 in some instances assist, but that the insects can liberate themselves 

 I have had several proofs. These observations, I am aware, are 

 but imperfect, but further observation I hope will enable me to 

 fill up some of the blanks remaining in the history of these 

 laborious and interesting communities. 



In the box of specimens two or three species have no names 

 attached, not having had time to determine them satisfactorily ; 

 but the sexes are placed together correctly, as each species was 

 taken from its own nest. There is one from Hampshire which I 

 suspect to be F. sanguinea. I could only find a single female, being 



