70 BRITISH ANTS. 



the nests. Baly 6 observed a winged female which flew into an open 

 window in his house in Kentish Town, and settled on the page of the 

 book he was reading. Chitty 29 records males on August 28th, 1904, 

 and September 3rd, 1905, and one winged female on the latter date, 

 all at Charing, and Hamm captured a female on the wing in the 

 New Forest in August, 1908. I have taken five winged females at 

 Darenth Wood on September 27th, 1910 37 , and swept many males 

 and one winged female at Box Hill on September 5th, 1912 41 

 this female had evidently been fertilized, as she had lost two wings, 

 and when placed in a tube with some males, refused to allow them 

 to embrace her. In September, 1913, none could be found, and 

 on September 2nd, 1914, only one male was swept at the same 

 spot. 



Specimens of this ant are frequently found in and about other 

 ants' nests both Janson 22 and Shepperd 22 took workers in company 

 with Donisthorpea fuliginosa, W. E. Sharp 37 workers with D. flava 

 at Stoat's Nest, and my own captures are as follows : a worker 

 with Formica fusca at Doddington 26 , May 12th, 1901, five winged 

 females and a few workers in a nest of D, fuliginosa at Darenth 

 Wood September 27th, 1910 37 , a worker in the same nest May 

 26th, 191 1 40 , and a number of workers with F. fusca Box Hill 

 May 30th, 1912 41 some of these were brought home and introduced 

 into two observation nests of F. fusca (from Porlock and Tiree) 

 where they lived for more than two months, and were never attacked 

 by the fusca workers, crouching down and remaining motionless 

 when the latter tapped them with their antennae. Wasmann 

 records specimens in the neighbourhood (" Nestbezirke ") of nests 

 of F. rufa and F. sanguinea in Dutch Limburg 19 , and often with 

 other ants in Luxemburg 32 . It is possible that females of Ponera 

 coarctata may found their small colonies in, or near, the nests of 

 other species of ants for the sake of the food and shelter they may 

 thus obtain 42 . 



The following Myrmecophiles have occurred with this ant in 

 Britain : Drusilla canaliculata F., Lamprinus saginatus Gr., and 

 Bythinus glabratus Rye (Coleoptera), Pseudisobrachium cantianum 

 Chitty (Proctotrupid), Cyphodeirus albinos Nicolet (Collembola), 

 and Riper sia donisthorpei Newstead (Coccid), but Aphidae do not 

 appear to be attended, or kept, by it, as is also pointed out by 

 Forel 11 . 



Colonies have not been kept in captivity with much success the 

 one referred to by Lord Avebury was unfortunately destroyed by a 

 community of Donisthorpea flava 16 ; Chitty placed Morley's colony 

 in a small inverted glass shade with earth on August 2nd, when the 

 ants disappeared beneath the earth, and were not seen again till 

 September 20th, when he dug them up and found some twenty 

 workers present, a dealated female and two males 28 he states that 

 all the pupae had hatched ; but it seems probable that the latter 



