MYRMECINA. 79 



seen of this little insect were all males, which I swept off rushes the 

 middle of August and beginning of September, at the back of the 

 Isle of Wight, where they were flying about." In August, 1836, 

 Curtis 7 discovered the female at Lulworth Cove, and captured 

 males in several other localities. 



Stephens 4 records it from near Guildford in 1842 ; he does not 

 mention the sex, but as Curtis had not then described the female 

 and the worker was unknown, it almost certainly must have been 

 a male. Smith 10 took a female at South wold in August, 1859, and 

 remarks how strange it was that no one finds the worker. In 

 September, 1865, the first workers were taken in Britain by Dr. 

 Sharp who found a nest at Mickleham. Smith 11 recorded this fact 

 and gave a description of the worker. Since then it has been met 

 with in a number of localities, chiefly in the South of England, and 

 appears to range as far north as Staffordshire. 



The habits of this ant are subterranean, it nests under stones, in 

 stumps, and at the roots of trees. The colonies are generally small 

 and, at least in this country, have not often been observed. Lord 

 Avebury found a colony near Down 23 and Farren White 22 records 

 another which he met with under a stone at the foot of Stinch- 

 combe Hill, near Dursley, it contained a deflated female, many 

 males, workers, and larvae of all sizes. Jordain 31 states that 

 Martineau observed colonies in dead tree-stumps at Colwich. I 

 have twice found a small colony in a hollow flint at Box Hill 38 , a 

 very small hole on the under side of the flint giving access to the 

 cavity within each contained a dealated female and a few workers 

 and brood. 



Isolated workers are more frequently met with, and both 

 Richardson 21 and Farren White 22 record the fact that they have 

 captured specimens in the centre of half -eaten strawberries. 



The males and winged females occur away from the nests in 

 August, September, and October, when they may be swept off 

 grass, rushes, and herbage generally. Forel 13 records the capture 

 of an isolated winged female on Mont Tendre, but does not mention 

 the date, and Crawley 42 found a dealated female wandering on the 

 flag-stones in front of his house near Oxford in August. 



It is probable that both these specimens were (after the marriage 

 flight) searching for suitable situations to found colonies in the 

 latter case the female had already removed her wings. They are 

 probably capable of founding their colonies independently (i.e. 

 without the assistance of workers), as certainly appeared to be the 

 case in the two instances referred to above the small colonies in 

 the hollow flints. 



It is also a fact however that this ant frequently occurs in the nests 

 of other species. Farren White 22 found it in company with Donis- 

 thorpea flava near Dursley, and my own records are as follows : 

 two workers in a nest of D. nigra at Doddington in May, 1901 29 ; a 



