FORMICA. 333 



a worker was alarmed it seemed to vanish, disappearing into the 

 sphagnum. 



On carefully tracking some of the workers carrying prey I 

 eventually discovered two nests (the workers were found to hunt 

 at considerable distances from their dwellings), the one covered 

 with a low layer of cut sphagnum, the other almost without any 

 covering, being situated in the sphagnum itself, and when I knelt 

 down to dig up the nests the knees of my trousers were quickly 

 soaked with water. The nests were situated about a foot below the 

 surface, some w r orker pupae, in cocoons, and a few workers being at 

 the top, and below, in the very wettest part, a queen, a number of 

 larvae, some more pupae, callows, etc., occurred in each. The 

 one colony consisted of about one hundred individuals, the other 

 perhaps of twice as many, and evidently in both these cases a 

 young queen had found a suitable spot, after the marriage flight, 

 and founded her colony alone. 



Piffard has since given to me a plan of the place where he and 

 Arnold found their nest ; it was not on my spot, nor the 1912 

 locality, so that evidently F. picea ranges all over Matley Bog, 

 though this locality is not so favourable as those in Denmark and 

 Sweden. 



I dug up a large block of sphagnum about a foot deep, with the 

 wet peaty earth attached and a little heather and grass growing in 

 it, which I brought home and fixed up in a large glass bowl, with 

 water at the bottom. I introduced one of the above-mentioned 

 colonies of picea into this observation nest. The queen and workers 

 all disappeared into the sphagnum, carrying their brood. They 

 soon established themselves in one corner of the clump, and now 

 bits of sphagnum have been heaped above it. The ants feed on 

 the honey which is placed in a lid fixed on the top of a pen-holder ; 

 dead flies, other ant-larvae, etc., when put into a small tray, are 

 very soon removed, but only one or two of the workers come up 

 to get the food. 



On July 14th I captured a specimen of the aberrant Phorid 

 Aenigmatias blattoides Mein., which had climbed up to the honey 

 and fallen in, and a day or two before I saw a winged Phorid, very 

 like Platyphora lubbocki Verrall, running about, which disappeared 

 into the sphagnum. My later captures, mentioned presently, 

 prove these to be the female and male of the same species. 



On July 23rd when again in the New Forest further search for 

 nests of F. picea proved successful, five colonies being found, 

 which had constructed nests of various sizes. The smallest of 

 these nests was only about three inches high, consisting of bits of 

 cut grass built round the stem of a small shoot of " Bog Myrtle " ; 

 the largest was about a foot in height and six inches in diameter, 

 consisting of fine cut grass, bits of heather, some leaves of " Bog 

 Myrtle," and sphagnum, these materials being closely woven 



