123 BRITISH ANTS. 



placed head downwards, at the side, and near the inverted edge 

 of the glass, rapidly vibrating its abdomen vertically from the 

 pedicle, and simultaneously giving out a continuous singing sound, 

 resembling in tone and intensity the sharp whining of the little 

 dipteron, Syrilla pipiens." 



Wasmann having put a strong section of a ruginodis colony 

 into an empty glass vessel, the day being warm, the ants were 

 very excited moving the gasters up and down, and he noticed 

 a chirping noise, which reminded him of the sound caused by the 

 Iris pod beetle, Mononychus pseudacori. 



The winged forms are to be found, and the marriage flights 

 occur, at the same times as in laevinodis. Beare records a swarm 

 of this species at Nethy Bridge on August 15th, 1913, at 2.30 p.m., 

 the air temperature being 75 F. 35 , Evans observed males and 

 females floating in Loch Ghow, Kinross, on September llth, 1909, 

 and on April 30th, 1912, I found three small females partly winged, 

 under a stone, in a colony of ruginodis at Hynish in the Isle of 

 Tiree 33 . Wasmann took a number of winged females in a nest of 

 ruginodis at Vorarlberg, Feldkirch in August, 1890, which were 

 smaller than the workers of the same colony 22 . 



The same observer records finding a large worker with the head 

 more like that of a female, the rest of the body however being 

 ergatoid, in a colony at Exaeten in Holland 22 . 



Forel describes a frontal gynandromorph taken by Frey-Gessner 

 "sur le col du Susten," the body being perfectly symmetrical. 



It is rather a male, as the gaster has five segments in addition to the 

 petiole and post-petiole and the external genitalia are male. The epinotum 

 has only two tubercles instead of spines, but the eyes are much smaller than 

 those of the male, and hence more like the female. The head is also a little 

 larger than the head of a male, but both its form and colour are intermediate 

 between the two sexes. Antennae thirteen- jointed as in the male, but in 

 colour and form recalling the antennae of the female. There are also two 

 distinct red bands on the anterior portion of the mesonotum, which are never 

 found in the male. Sculpture of head and epinotum more rugose and less 

 shining than in the male 9 . 



The first experiment, in which ants were brought up from eggs 

 laid in captivity, was carried out by Lord Avebury with this species. 

 He writes : " On August 14, 1876, I isolated two pairs of Myrmica 

 ruginodis which I found flying in my garden. I placed them with 

 damp earth, food, and water, and they continued perfectly healthy 

 through the winter. In April one of the males died, and the second 

 in the middle of May. The first eggs were laid between April 12 

 and 23. They began to hatch the first week in June, and the 

 first larva turned into a chrysalis on the 27th ; a second on the 

 30th ; a third on July 1st, when there were also seven larvae and 

 two eggs. On the 8th there was another egg. On July 8th a 

 fourth larva had turned into a pupa. On July llth I found there 

 were six eggs, and on the 14th about ten. On the 15th one of the 



