FORMICA. 



nest, and the rest were placed in a tin with a little earth and some 

 of their own workers. 



On July 4th four more colonies were discovered, only two of 

 which contained sex pupae, and a few of these were taken home 

 from one of the nests and placed in the tin with the others. 



Males emerged on July 9th and 10th ; the ants in my observation 

 nest having accepted the two cocoons, only one of which hatched 

 however. On July 16th ten more nests were found, nearly all of 

 which contained males in some numbers, but only one winged 

 female was observed. 



Forel states the marriage flight takes place in July at about 

 seven o'clock in the morning, when he saw males and winged 

 females flying at the summit of Mont Tendre 23 , as before men- 

 tioned, and Andre gives June and July 25 . On August 3rd, 1914, 

 all the winged sexes had disappeared from the nests at Wey bridge. 



The queens found their colonies in the normal manner as, we 

 have seen, do all the fusca group. 



Wasmann records finding a small incipient colony at Shotter 

 Marial on July 25th, 1906, which consisted of a dealated female, 

 about fifty young small workers, and twelve naked worker pupae. 

 The queen was resting in a small chamber about the size of a 

 hazel nut, and empty cocoons were scattered about outside the 

 nest, which he concluded had been removed from the pupae by the 

 workers 38 . 



My observation nest of this species was taken on July 10th, 1912, 

 but the queen did not lay eggs till January 27th, 1913, and again 

 on April 2nd and 17th, 1914 ; very few ants have died, and the 

 colony which is still under observation is in good condition, 

 but only a few workers have been brought up. Two very curious 

 cripples with twisted legs and antennae were produced, which were 

 quite unable to walk, but lived for some time in the nest. 



I have never been able to find any beetles (which are the usual 

 guests) with these ants, although Atemeles paradoxus and Dinar da 

 pygmaea occur with them on the Continent, and the only myrme- 

 cophiles I have observed are one Leptacinus formicetorum Mark (a 

 guest of F. rufa), Pachylomma buccata Nees., hovering over the ants, 

 Platyphora dorni Ender., bred from the ant's pupae, and Cypho- 

 deirus albinos Nic., in the nests. 



Formica picea Nyl. 



Formica picea Nylander Acta. Soc. Sc. Fenn 2 917 1 1059-1060 2 (1846) : 

 3 27 (1849) 3 ; Forster Hym. Stud. 1 30-31 (1850) 4 ; Schenck Jahrb. Ver. 

 Naturk Nassau 8 126 (1852) 5 . Formica gagates Mayr Verb. Zool. Bot. Ver. 

 Wein 5 347-350 (1855) 6 [in part] ; Nylander Ann. Sc. Nat. 5 65 (1856) 7 ; 

 Meinert Kong. Danske. Vidensk. Selsk. Skrift. 5 316 (1861 ) 8 ; F. Smith Ent. 

 Ann. 1866 127 9 ; Sahlberg Meddek Sco. Faun-Flora Fenn. 1 134-136 (1876) 10 ; 

 " Formica gagates Olivier-picea Nyl " Cornelius and v. Hagens Jahr. Nat. 

 Elberfeld-Barmen 5 104 (1879) 11 . Formica gagates Saunders Trans. Ent. 



