25 



tbese Formicaa (popularly termed the *' sugar ants") only move 

 about on cool, cloudy days and dry nights, when they sally 

 forth forage hunting. 



This nest was observed for years, and the ants seemed to 

 increase, for on one occasion the swarming was observed, but I 

 cannot remember especially noting whether loth sexes were 

 represented, and my observation is, therefore, somewhat incon- 

 clusive. 



Sir J. Lubbock cites another observer who had succeeded in 

 establishing a colony artificially, and mentions that he only 

 succeeded in one or two instances out of many by introducing 

 the strange queens at first only to a very few ants, and very 

 gradually increasing their number. It may have been, there- 

 fore, in the above case that the small number of ants was an 

 important factor in establishing the colony, inasmuch that 

 they captured one or two stray queens, and elected to be their 

 subjects instead of destroying them. 



The "swarming" of ants takes place on warm sultry days, 

 in the afternoons and early part of the evening, not frequently 

 before the summer and autumn, and generally before rain. 

 In the morning preceding it the ants are unusually active, the 

 numbers crowding about the holes increasing as the day 

 advances, till at last the winged males and females begin to 

 appear, at first a few, but in a few minutes pouring out, mixed 

 with the workers in a continual stream. Ascending stalks of 

 grass, &c., all who can take to the air, forming occasionally 

 clouds of insects, and occasionally rising to great heights, 

 exceeding that of very tall Eucalypts, where they only can be 

 distinguished collectively by means of the reflected sun rays, 

 like a faint mist. AYhile flying thus, mates meet, and copula- 

 tion takes place, the pairs dropping helplessly to the ground, 

 settle on one's clothes, or are carried along by the breeze and 

 snapped up by the swallows. As soon as the act is completed, 

 they cast their wings, and, if near a friendly nest, seek its 

 shelter, to which they are conducted (sometimes assisted by 

 dragging) by the active workers rushing excitedly about in 

 myriads. Or, if not near, they seek some shelter under stones, 

 bark, &c., or in hollows of the ground, where one often meets 

 solitary ones, weakened by starvation, scarcely able to move. 

 Strange to say, it seems that those who do not pair retain their 

 wings for a lengthened period, as I have found solitary ones 

 days after the swarming still with their wings and have kept 

 some, captured at once, in boxes, and forgotten to be killed 

 for the collection, that were afterwards found dead with the 

 wings still firmly fixed, while pairs caught dropped them mostly 

 immediately 



On one occasion I came across a nest of the giant Myrmicidae, 



