334 BRITISH ANTS. 



together, with no visible opening on the outside. The other three 

 nests were chiefly composed of bits of sphagnum and were situated 

 on patches of that material. The large nest, and two of the medium- 

 sized ones, were dug up and carefully investigated ; a single 

 dealated female was found in each of the two latter nests, and three 

 occurred in the former. Naked pupae, as well as cocoons, of both 

 sexes and workers were present, very many large cocoons occurring 

 in the big nest. In these nests I found a number of small Dipterous 

 pupae, the " spring-tail " Cyphodeirus albinos, and some pink 

 coccids of the genus Pseudococcus, new to science, which E. Green 

 has named P. sphagni. 



Three of the dealated females, a number of workers, larvae, and 

 pupae were brought home and introduced into the glass bowl, when 

 they all disappeared into the sphagnum, being quite friendly with 

 the older inhabitants of the nest. 



A number of the large cocoons with a few workers were placed 

 in tins with a little damp earth and sphagnum, and males and 

 winged females commenced to emerge on July 26th eventually 

 over thirty hatched; only six of these were females, the last of 

 which appeared on October 15th, 1914. 



A number of the Dipterous pupae hatched, proving to be Platy- 

 phora and Aenigmatias, which are no doubt the male and female of 

 Platyphora lubbocki Verrall. 



COSMOPOLITAN AND INTRODUCED SPECIES. 



Ants are continually being transported from land to land by 

 commerce, in railway trains and ships, even the ships themselves 

 becoming inhabited by some species. 



Large numbers of ants, comprising single specimens, fecundated 

 females, and even whole colonies, are carried about in fruit, vege- 

 tables, and plants of all kinds, sheltered in the leaves, earth, and 

 moss adhering to the roots, etc. 



Every botanical garden throughout the world receives annually 

 numbers of species of ants from the tropics with orchids, etc., and 

 by this means many of the species may become permanent inhabi- 

 tants of the hot-houses ; through the exchange of plants some of 

 the ant-fauna of one botanical garden may be introduced into 

 another. 



Forel, in a paper on the geographical distribution of the Formi- 

 cidae, read at the Entomological Congress at Brussels, enumerated 

 eleven species of ants which have become cosmopolitan, being 

 introduced everywhere by shipping, viz. : 



1. Odontomachus haematodes L. 



2. Monomorium destructor Jerdon. 



3. Monomorium floricola Jerdon. 



