PONERA. 73 



occurred in the former at Oxford, Minchinhampton where a large 

 colony was discovered in Mrs. Frith's hot-house by Farren White 11 

 and Edinburgh where Stewart found a colony in the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens in a propagating frame, the heat of which was 

 about 85 Fahr. 15 ; and in the latter in London 4 , Colchester 13 , and 

 Portsmouth 20 . 



It has also occurred away from houses and buildings : Saunders 

 took a winged female at some distance from any houses at Bromley 9 ; 

 Chitty and I found a dealated female and worker in flood refuse at 

 Whitstable 14 ; Walker captured workers in the bone-heap at 

 Queenborough 17 ; and Hallett swept up a dealated female on 

 June 20th, 1914, within half a mile of Penarth, on mixed herbage 

 at the edge of a field. He tells me this field is about a quarter of 

 a mile, as the crow flies, from the " tip " where the dustmen empty 

 the town refuse. 



Its colonies are much more populous than those of P. coarctata 

 and the winged females, which occur in July and August, are 

 produced in considerable numbers. 



At the end of July, 1910, Pool sent me some winged females 

 which he said were swarming in a scullery at Portsmouth, and in 

 August we visited this scullery together, when the ants were still 

 present in numbers, and this went on for several weeks, these 

 females being chiefly found on a window facing the street. The 

 scullery was connected with a bake-house by a grating and on 

 visiting this a few winged females were also found there. The ants 

 probably emerged from a hole in the masonry of one of the walls, 

 though much search failed to find the nest, and no workers or males 

 were taken. The baker said he had sometimes noticed small ants, 

 crawling about and on the sugar for iceing cakes, some of which 

 may have been the workers, but in the latter case they were 

 probably Monomorium pJmraonis L., the " house ant." 



Charsley says that the females appeared in June 7 , and Saunders 

 took his winged female when sweeping in a wood on the evening of 

 July 1st, 1886 9 . Britten captured a male, winged females and 

 workers in a hot-house in Cumberland on April 7th, 1913 ; and 

 Bedwell took a winged female in the Queenborough Chemical 

 Works on October 3rd, 1914. 



Roger found it commonly in Berlin under flower -pots on the 

 borders in pine-apple houses, a colony often consisting of 30, 40, 

 or 50 individuals, which left their nest and came out and ran about 

 in the sunshine 1 . 



Forel discovered at Vaux in Switzerland a large colony in an old 

 wall near a stable (no hot-houses being anywhere near) from which 

 on August 16th, 1868, large numbers of winged females were taking 

 flight. The females were unattended by workers, but he found 

 males and workers in the interstices of the masonry of the wall 5 . 



The male of this species is always apterous, the description of 



