238 BRITISH ANTS. 



Donisthorpea mixta was first recorded as British by Bignell, who 

 discovered a colony at Bickleigh near Plymouth in September, 

 1881 15 , but no further capture was published till 1908 when Grim- 

 shaw pointed out that the Misses E. V. Baxter, and L. J. Rintoul 

 had taken specimens on the Isle of May in September and October, 

 1907 19 . Evans had taken a female mixta on the Isle of May in 

 September, 1888, and he found two nests there in 1910, and 1911 22 , 

 but no further records occur till the latter year 20 . 



The Formica brunnea F. Smith must be referred to Donisthorpea 

 mixta, as D. brunnea Latr., which lives under the bark of trees on 

 the Continent, has not been found in Britain. 



Smith states that the brunnea of the Stephensian collection was 

 represented by a female umbrata, but that he had taken a single 

 female of the true brunnea on the Deal sand-hills, in 1856 5 . 



Subsequently in his 1871 catalogue he sinks his brunnea as a 

 synonym of umbrata., as also does Saunders, but as Smith describes 

 the tibiae as being " without pile or pubescence " the specimen in 

 question must have been D. mixta. 



Donisthorpea mixta is not as abundant nor as widely distributed 

 as D. umbrata ; it occurs on heaths, in sandy places, but also in 

 clearings and copses, in chalky districts, and seems to like the shade. 



The habits are similar to those of umbrata though it is a more 

 active species it lives a subterranean life, and nests under stones, 

 at and in the roots of trees, in stumps and banks, and its nests 

 penetrate deep into the ground. 



Janet records a very large colony which he observed for five years 

 in the garden of the Villa des Roses near Beauvais, which was 

 nesting in the ground in a shady place, the earth being of a fine 

 vegetable mould, with violets, etc., growing on it. He dug a hole 

 and inserted his arm, and at the depth of thirty centimetres below 

 the surface, after passing through a thickening of the soil, rendered 

 spongy by the galleries of the ants, his hand reached a vast excava- 

 tion dug out by the ants in the soft soil, overrun with roots. He 

 noticed a gentle heat in this cavity 18 . 



In May, 1913, I found a number of colonies of mixta at Box 

 Hill 27 , one or two were situated under stones the flinty nature of 

 the ground beneath rendering excavation impossible one in and 

 under a fallen bough, but the majority in the roots of dead Jumper 

 trees in thickets on each side of the valley. A number of species of 

 ants occur in this valley and their nest are nearly all situated on the 

 side facing the east, but the mixta nests were equally common on 

 both sides. The ants had hollowed out the Juniper roots, channel- 

 ling them with galleries partly filled with brittle earthen cells, 

 which on analysis were found to contain some fungus. Most of the 

 ants, and their brood, were inhabiting these roots, but a number of 

 workers also occurred in the flinty ground round about. 



The marriage flight takes place according to Andre from July to 



