248 BRITISH ANTS. 



Formica rufa is perhaps the most generally known ant in Britain, 

 and has been called the " Wood Ant," " Hill Ant," " Fallow Ant," 

 "Horse Ant," and in Germany, " Waldameise." D. Sharp refers 

 to it as the "Red-ant," 61 but this is the name used for Myrmica 

 rubra. 



It is a hardy, fierce, and courageous species, being very strong, 

 and able to lift very heavy weights in proportion to its size, and 

 living chiefly an open-air life. 



Its movements are abrupt, and it shows a want of individual 

 initiative, single ants appearing to be rather stupid, as they will 

 pass close by an object of which they are in search over a dozen 

 times. 



In warfare they attack in serried masses, not exhibiting the 

 strategy of F. sanguined, nor sending out small troops to execute 

 flank movements. They do not persistently pursue a flying foe, 

 but endeavour to kill as many enemies as possible at once, and do 

 not hesitate to sacrifice themselves for the common good in defence 

 of their nests. 



Warner states that in descending from a tree these ants drop 

 from leaf to leaf to save themselves trouble in reaching the ground 33 , 

 but this is by no means always the case. 



They are indefatigable in working ; Plant says they continue 

 from sunrise till an hour after sunset 17 , but Kirby pointed out that 

 they are at work at midnight 9 , and this I have often noticed in 

 the observation nests I have kept of this species. 



Sometimes they delight to bask in the sun, resting on a leaf, or 

 on the top of the nest, and occasionally individuals will play to- 

 gether, chasing each other, rolling over, and pretending to fight. 



These ants very frequently carry their fellows, and this act was 

 mistaken by Hill 7 , and other early writers, and even by Bignell 41 , 

 as an instance of making war, the carriers being supposed to have 

 taken the carried prisoners. 



Matthews describes a combat between two rufa colonies, which 

 were situated on opposite sides of a ditch at Skellingthorpe, Lines, 

 on June 25th, 1850, when large numbers of both were said to have 

 been destroyed, the whole of the space in the ditch being literally 

 covered with the dead bodies of the combatants, which in some 

 places lay more than an inch deep 47 . 



This however is very unusual, for, as will be seen later, the nests in 

 one area belong to the same large community. I have seen 

 large numbers of dead ants in a cart-track near a large nest of 

 F. rufa in Haye Woods near Knowle, which had been killed by a 

 beetle, Myrmedonia humeralis. This beetle occurred in every 

 crack and under every dead leaf in the cart-track, and every here 

 and there little heaps of dead ants were to be seen, and these kept 

 being added to by the Myrmedonias with specimens they had 

 slain, thousands of the ants being killed 69 . 



