220 BRITISH ANTS. 



insects 19 , and no doubt this is largely the case, but I have found 

 the remains of beetles, etc., in the galleries of flava nests under 

 stones. 



If a nest of this ant be dug into in the winter, packets of oblong 

 black eggs will be found in the subterranean chambers, and in the 

 spring these eggs will be seen in the galleries in nests under 

 stones. 



Gould (p. 35) thought that these black eggs produced female 

 ants, but young plant-lice hatch from them, which are not how- 

 ever the same species which occur in the nests on roots, but belong 

 to a species which lives on plants outside the nests. These eggs are 

 laid in the autumn, and the ants collect them and carry them into 

 their nests, where they remain the whole winter, and when they 

 hatch the ants carry the young aphides out, and place them on 

 their proper food-plants. 



Lord Avebury, who witnessed the latter fact himself 21 , writes : 

 " Such species as Lasius flavus represent a distinctly higher type 

 of social life ; they show more skill in architecture, may literally 

 be said to have domesticated certain species of aphides, and may 

 be compared to the pastoral stage of human progress to the 

 races which live on the produce of their flocks and herds." 22 I have 

 found four species of Coccidae in the nests of D. flava, and these 

 ants also attend larvae of blue butterflies, which they milk. 



Ray ward records that on June 18th, 1906, he found some thirty 

 or more of the larvae of Lycaena corydon (the " Chalk Hill Blue ") 

 at Reigate, nearly all of which had Donisthorpea flava upon them, 

 and two larvae found resting on the leaves of their food-plant on 

 the crown of an ant-hill were literally covered by these ants, more 

 than twenty being counted on one of them 32 . 



I have found the winged sexes of D. flava in the nests from June 

 to September, and F. Smith records finding a male on Novem- 

 ber 5th 8 . 



The principal time for the marriage flight of this species is in 

 August ; Schenck says it swarms from June to October in Nassau 5 , 

 and Forel gives the end of July to the end of August for Switzer- 

 land 16 . 



The male settles on the female in the air, and she carries him 

 during the marriage flight, when two or three males may rest upon 

 her at the same time, and Forel states that a female is often fer- 

 tilized by a number of males in succession 16 . 



I have noticed many marriage flights of D. flava on the same 

 afternoon as those of D. nigra, D. umbrata, and species of Myrmica, 

 and the procedure is much the same as that described for D. nigra. 



Crawley observed at Oddington in 1899 and again in 1900 a 

 number of mermithogynes walking on the road in company with a 

 few normal females 40 the wings of one of the former which he 

 kindly gave to me measures only 4 mm. in length as against 9 mm. 



