Miscellaneous. 539 



fragilis, fusco- vel flavo-cornea ; spira elevato-conica, apice sub- 

 obtuso ; anfractus 7, convexiusculi, ultimus in medio subacute 

 carinatus, infra carinam parum convexus ; apertura vix obliqua, 

 irregulariter subquadrato-rotundata, longitudinis totius y^y ad- 

 aequans ; peristoma simplex, tenue, margine extemo in medio 

 leviter angulato, baud expanso, columeJlari superne breviter 

 dilatato et reflexo, perforationem angustam fere obtegente. 

 Long. 17, diam. supra carinam 11 ; aperturae long. 8, diam. 

 6^ millim. 



Hob. Eastern slope of the Drakensberg mountains, at Lyden- 

 burg Gold-fields, Transvaal, South Africa. 



There are two species closely related to each other, B. nata- 

 lensis, Krauss, and B. aremcola, Benson, which also exhibit 

 a very near relationship with the present. In substance they 

 are much alike, being thin and semitransparent, and differ 

 principally in form, colour, and the proportion of the whorls. 



B. drakenshergensis has a more produced spire than B. 

 aremcola^ its nearest ally, consists of half a whorl more ; the 

 last whorl is smaller, narrower, and less acutely keeled ; and 

 the aperture is also smaller. These, together with the diffe- 

 rence of coloration, constitute the main distinctions. 



The two specimens which I now describe were presented to 

 the British Museum by Mr. G. B. Sowerby, jun. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



RemarTcs on the Yelloiv Ant. 



Pkofessok Leidy remarked that recently, while seeking certain 

 animals beneath stones in the woods near Philadelphia, he had had 

 the opportunity of observing the yellow ant {Formica ftava) in 

 possession of large numbers of other insects. This fact, in itself 

 common enough, in one respect, was new and of special interest to 

 him, and may be so to others. In one instance a comparatively 

 small colony of the yellow ants had three different insects in their 

 possession, consisting of a species of Aphis, a Coccus, and the larva 

 of an insect, probably Coleopterous. The Aphides were kept in two 

 separate herds, and these were separated from a herd of Cocci. The 

 larva was in the midst of one of the former herds. In a larger 

 colony of the yellow ants there was a herd of Aphides, which 

 occupied the underpart of one margin of the stone, and was almost 

 ten inches long by three fourths of an inch in breadth. The same 

 colony also possessed a separate herd of Cocci, closely crowded and 

 occupyuag almost a square inch of space. In both colonies the 

 Aphis and the Coccus were the same. The Aphis is pale yellow, 

 with white tubercles on the dorsal surface of the abdominal seg- 

 ments. The Coccus is of a dark red hue. Both Aphides and Cocci, 

 with few exceptions, adhered to the under suface of the stones, and 



