202 BRITISH ANTS. 



Forel states that the Japanese examples are absolutely identical 

 with those from Europe, and that it may be admitted to inhabit 

 the whole of the Northern Hemisphere as far south as the 30th 

 degree of latitude 32 . It probably extends over the whole of the 

 British Isles, but I have no records in England for South Wiltshire, 

 Huntingdonshire, East Gloucestershire, Monmouth, Hereford, 

 Shropshire, South-East and North-West Yorkshire, Cheviot- 

 land, Westmoreland, and the Isle of Man, and in Scotland for 

 Peebles, Selkirk, Roxburgh, Forfar, Kincardine, North Aberdeen, 

 Banff, the South, Mid, and North Ebudes, East Ross, East and 

 West Sutherland, Caithness, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and the 

 Shetlands. 



I have only records for Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Pembroke, 

 Merioneth, Carnarvon, and Denbigh in Wales, and Down, Dublin, 

 Wexford, Carlow, West Mayo, East and West Gal way, Clare, 

 Limerick, North Tipperary, Waterford, Cork, and Kerry in Ireland. 



Donisthorpea nigra, which according to Wheeler is almost in- 

 distinguishable from the schiefferdeckeri Mayr of the Baltic 

 Amber 56 , is one of the commonest ants in Europe. 



It has been called the " Garden Ant," but it occurs everywhere, 

 in woods, in clearings, in cultivated and uncultivated places, in 

 shady as well as exposed spots, on the seashore and in towns, but 

 is less abundant, however, in fields and meadows than D. flava. 



Forel records it as occurring as high as the region of the fir trees 

 in Switzerland 23 , and Hull has sent it to me from West Allendale, 

 situated at the height of 1000 ft. 



D. nigra nests in the earth, in banks, under stones, in old stumps, 

 etc., and frequently occurs under the pavements, and in masonry in 

 towns, and even in houses. I have seen it running about all over 

 the Caledonian Market, and in many other parts of London. S. 0. 

 Taylor sent specimens to me from his house in Leicester, and I 

 observed it swarming in a cellar at Southsea. 



This ant constructs though not to the same extent as D. flava 

 earthen mound nests which in fields are covered with grass ; 

 Daniell records such hillocks in grass in his garden at Chobham 13 , 

 Evans found nigra mound nests at Longniddry, and I have seen 

 them at Blankenberge in Belgium, at Woking, and at Sandown in 

 the Isle of Wight, etc. 



When nigra nests in tree trunks and stumps it carves out long 

 galleries in the wood, stretching in all directions ; Andre gives 

 figures of a part of a nest of this species carved in the trunk of a 

 dead tree 29 , and I have found it nesting in tree stumps at Tilgate 

 Forest, Parkhurst Forest, etc. 



Thomas records finding an interesting nest of " the small brown 

 ant " in a drain-pipe set up as a pedestal for a flower-pot in a 

 garden at Cardiff 34 . The ants had constructed earthen galleries and 



