114 BRITISH ANTS. 



M. laevinodis in Dunham Park, Cheshire and presented it to 

 B. Cooke. 



It combined characters of male, female, and worker, the right side being 

 entirely worker ; on the left side the head being female with an ocellus and 

 antenna exhibiting the female characters ; the left side of the thorax is that 

 of the male, the mesothorax exhibiting in front a Mayrian furrow ; the 

 epinotum on the left side is destitute of a spine and the legs on the same side 

 are all male. 



F. Smith, who recorded and figured this insect as a herma- 

 phrodite, in 1874, stated that it was the first instance of the kind 

 observed in England 9 . 



Wasmann 17 records a mixed ergatandromorph with only the 

 colour of the head like that of the worker, and the ocelli much 

 smaller and more closely aggregated than in the male. In all other 

 respects the species was a normal male. 



Wheeler 26 has shown that M. laevinodis has recently been intro- 

 duced into Massachusetts, and gives good reasons to show it is not 

 indigenous in North America. Early in September, 1908, he found 

 a large colony of this ant in the grass at the edge of the Arnold 

 Arboretum, a few steps from the Bussey Institution at Forest 

 Hills, Mass. The workers were attending plant-lice on a few stalks 

 of Chenopodium album very near their nest. Some days later he 

 discovered a second colony at the edge of Franklin Park, about a 

 mile from the Arboretum, and early in October he saw a third 

 colony on a lawn near the post office in Jamaica Plain. He remarks 

 that though by no means common it is certain that this ant has 

 begun to spread over the country about Forest Hills. 



According to Forel M. laevinodis understands the cultivation of 

 Aphidae better than all the other species of this genus 11 , and I 

 have taken the following species in its nests Forda formicaria 

 Heyd., F. furcata Theobald, Pentaphis trivialis Pass., Tycheoides 

 setulosa Pass., and Schizoneura corni F. 



The undermentioned myrmecophiles have occurred with this ant 

 in Britain 32 : 



Coleoptera : Atemeles emarginatus Pk., A. paradoxus Gr., 

 Drusilla canaliculata F., Myrmedonia collaris Pk., and Staphylinus 

 stercorarius 01. 



Ichneumonidae : Pezomachus aquisgranensis var. neesii Forst., 

 and Microcryptus nigro-cinctus Gr. 



Proctotrupidae : Gonatopus distinctus Kieff. 



Heteroptera : Myrmedobia coleoptrata Fall. 



Collembola : Cyphodeirus ( = Beckia) albinos Nic. 



Acarina : Uroplitella ovatula Berl. 



Crustacea : Platyarthrus hoffmanseggi Brandt. 



