106 BRITISH ANTS. 



an easy handle to the mandibles of the Solenopsis, in which case 

 the victim was promptly gashed, sucked, and cut up into quite 

 small particles, which were hastily carried into the interior of the 

 nest. The operation is much more difficult when the contents 

 consist of a larva, as he then saw the Solenopsis convey it into the 

 nest and work at it for twenty-four hours, at the end of which 

 time it was covered with small black contiguous spots, correspond- 

 ing to the little wounds made by their mandibles, and it commenced 

 to become flabby. A number of individuals were occupied in lick- 

 ing the liquid which flowed from these wounds, but the larva did 

 not decrease in size until after thirty-six hours, when it had been 

 entirely devoured. 



Wasmann 18 observed a number of Myrmica lobicornis female 

 pupae which had been destroyed by Solenopsis, and in the summer 

 of 1887 he found in a hillock of the " black-backed wood ant " 

 (F. pratensis) several cocoons of a " Gold Beetle " (Cetonia floricola) 

 in which a multitude of this little yellow ant were busy eating the 

 dead and half -rotten Cetonia pupae. 



Isolated nests appear to be far from common ; Forel 10 in eight 

 years, though continually finding this ant in the nests of other species 

 indeed he says it was almost impossible to find a nest of Formica 

 fusca which did not contain it only found three or four such 

 colonies, and suggests that then the host species had deserted the 

 nest, and that it would be very difficult for the Solenopsis to follow 

 it, carrying with them their large female pupae. Wasmann 18 

 seldom found them alone in Holland, and then they were nearly 

 always near to the nest of another ant. Janet 24 who studied the 

 habits of Solenopsis at Beauvais, where it was abundant on a piece 

 of waste ground with hardly any stones, often found isolated 

 colonies, but as he points out, they were never so far from the 

 nests of other ants that they could not easily visit them, or be 

 connected with them. 



This is a very courageous little species and will fight fiercely with 

 much larger ants, as has also been recorded by Schenck 3 , Mayr 5 , 

 Forel 10 , Wasmann 18 , and Janet 24 . When a double nest has been 

 disturbed the Solenopsis workers fasten in numbers on to the legs 

 and antennae of the host species, wounding them with their 

 powerful stings. The larger ants, such as species of Formica, do 

 not appear to be able to see them properly, biting at the ground 

 and discharging acid without hurting them ; the smaller ones, such 

 as species of Donisthorpea and Tetramorium with its hard chitinous 

 body, being better able to tackle this minute ant. I introduced a 

 number of workers of Sole nopsis fugax taken with Donisthorpea nigra 

 at Sandown into a small plaster observation nest which contained 

 workers of Donisthorpea flava from Portland, and they were all 

 killed by the latter, there being no hiding-place for them in the 

 plaster nest 31 . It is evidently a much more common and widely 



