PREFACE. 



THE study of British ants has long been retarded by the want of 

 a comprehensive work. In spite of the great and admitted fascina- 

 tion of the subject very few books have been devoted to it, and of 

 these not one attempts to deal with the whole subject. It is with 

 the object of supplying this long-felt want that the present volume 

 has been written. 



The Rev. W. Gould, who may justly be called the Father of 

 British Myrmecology, published a little book " An Account of 

 English Ants " in 1747. Although this is of great interest both 

 as a curiosity and also for the really admirable account of some 

 habits of a few British ants the author only knew five species, 

 and of course a vast amount of information has accumulated since 

 his time. Lord Avebury's well-known work on " Ants, Bees and 

 Wasps " (1882), which includes most of his earlier papers on these 

 insects, is, as regards ants, almost restricted to experiments on 

 behaviour. 



The Rev. Farren- White's small popular book, " Ants and Their 

 Ways " (1883), which touches on ants in general, gives a number 

 of useful notes on British species, but it is neither very scientific 

 nor accurate. 



Finally Edward Saunders in his admirable Hymenoptera Aculeata 

 (1896), devoted some twenty-six pages to the British ants. The 

 treatment is almost entirely systematic and naturally after the 

 lapse of so many years requires bringing up to date. 



This brief list shows how great is the need for a work which will 

 include all that is now known on our ant fauna. 



Such a work I have endeavoured to write, and as I have been 

 studying the habits of ants for over twenty years, have taken all 

 our British species, and have kept most of them in captivity, I 

 feel in some measure justified in undertaking the task. 



Scattered throughout and often buried in our literature, are 



