MYRMICA. 119 



near the border of Dartmoor, a few miles from Plymouth, on the 

 10th instant (April, 1892), I caught sight of Myrmica ruginodis 

 carrying something that I could not at first well define ; standing 

 quietly a few moments I saw many others loaded in the same 

 manner. I captured one, and, to my surprise, I found it was 

 another of the same species it was carrying. I have no doubt a 

 raid had been made on a smaller colony, and the victorious party 

 were conveying them off to strengthen their home. The prisoner 

 was grasped by the throat, the abdomen turned over on the top 

 of the head of the carrier." 



On this occasion, however, it is certain that the ants were only 

 moving to another nest, carrying their fellows, as is their habit. 

 No strange ant would allow itself to be quietly carried in this 

 manner, and as I have before shown a Myrmica always lies over 

 the back of its fellow when carried, and it would have been the 

 jaws that were grasped, not the throat. As an instance of tenacity 

 of life in this species, a specimen of M. ruginodis may be mentioned, 

 which C. Best Gardner had in his possession in 1913, which lived 

 without a head for twenty-one or twenty-two days. 



Sometimes colonies of ruginodis occur in which all the individuals 

 are very dark in colour I found two such colonies on June 14th, 

 1911, on the mountains at Rannoch, in which some of the workers 

 were nearly black. 



It attends and keeps Aphidae, but also feeds on other insects, 

 and will eat honey in captivity. H. Miiller 8 records the capture 

 of both M . ruginodis and laevinodis in the flowers of Chrysosplenium 

 and Compositae, where they were no doubt seeking the nectar of 

 the flowers. 



Elwin 7 mentions that a colony he kept in captivity, fed on 

 " blue bottles " and also devoured the remains of a dead sparrow. 

 On September 1st, 1914, I observed an isolated deflated female 

 ruginodis at Weybridge, which was carrying a fly in its jaws. 

 They also collect seeds when staying with Crawley in July, 1912, 

 at Seaton in Devon, he called my attention to the fact that in his 

 garden the seeds of the blue cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) were 

 collected by workers of M . ruginodis and carried to their nest, 

 which was situated just near the front door, the ants bringing 

 the seeds from quite a long distance 34 . They probably devour the 

 elaiosome of the seeds, as Sernander has shown that when it is 

 removed, the seeds are not nearly so attractive to ants. 



The stridulating of ruginodis has been noticed by Swinton 13 

 and Wasmann 26 . The former observer, having seen specimens of 

 this ant attending Aphidae on thistle heads at Guildford in July, 

 1877, captured some of them and covered them with an inverted 

 wine-glass. He writes : : ' The weather was hot and sultry, and 

 these Myrmicae were probably irascible ; for they had not been 

 long left to themselves, when a puny individual was observed, 



