182 BRITISH ANTS. 



those on plants, though Ferton speaks of it as attending and 

 guarding these insects 27 . 



It haunts the battle-fields of larger ants, and carries off the dead 

 bodies of the slain, to be cut up and devoured at home. If these 

 ants, when out hunting, find a dead insect, they immediately seize 

 it and drag it along to their nest, but they will also attack and kill 

 flies and other small insects. They also often feed on dead birds, 

 according to Escherich 33 , and probably any other carrion will 

 occasionally attract them. 



The repugnatorial glands possessed by this species enable it to 

 hold its own when coming in contact with other and larger ants, 

 as it ejects the secretion contained in these glands, presenting its 

 mobile gaster in the face of the foe, and smearing the latter with 

 this liquid, which is of a very irritating and fatal nature. The 

 odour of this secretion is exactly similar to that given off by beetles 

 of the genus Myrmedonia, and other Staphylinidae, inhabiting ants' 

 nests, and by which I have shown they protect themselves against 

 the attacks of their hosts. 



Forel describes how workers of Formica sanguined are repulsed 

 when attacking a colony of migrating T. erraticum, five or six of 

 the latter applying their gasters to the head of one of the larger 

 ants, which fall back with extraordinary contortions. He also 

 mentions how workers of Tetramorium caespitum treated in the 

 same manner by the Tapinoma, rub the head on the ground, and 

 roll over in great distress 18 . I have experimented with workers of 

 T. erraticum and other species of ants in my observation nests 

 when introduced into a nest of Donisthorpea fuliginosa and attacked 

 by one of the workers, the Tapinoma poked her gaster into the face 

 of the latter, which immediately fell back, grovelling on the ground, 

 rubbing the chin on the floor of the nest, and behaving as if it had 

 a stroke another specimen was enclosed in a small box with a 

 worker of Formica rufa ; the latter seized the Tapinoma, but quickly 

 let go, and ran round and round in a circle, being evidently much 

 upset similar experiments with other species produced the same 

 results. 



Colonies of T. erraticum are sometimes small, but occasionally 

 very populous ones occur ; Wasmann records a very strong colony 

 he found in the Brandnertale near Bludenz at the height of 1000 

 metres 26 , and I found a very large colony at Weybridge on July 29th, 

 1913, the dealated females and the workers in this nest being the 

 largest specimens of this ant I have ever seen 44 . 



A number of dealated females are sometimes present in the 

 same nest ; Schenck mentions a nest at Nassau which contained 

 between thirty and forty dealated females 5 , and Crawley and I 

 found another in the New Forest, on June 23rd, 1912, in which 

 over twenty such females were present 42 . 



The fact that so many queens are found in the same nest indicates 



