348 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



choir of aerial dancers, her only thought is to construct a 

 subterranean abode in which she may deposit and attend 

 to her eggs and cherish her embryo young. Her ample 

 wings, which before were her chief ornament and the in- 

 strument of her pleasure, are now an encumbrance which 

 incommode her in the fulfilment of the great duty upper- 

 most in her mind ; she therefore, without a moment's 

 hesitation, plucks them from her shoulders. Might we 

 not, then, address females who have families in words like 

 those of Solomon, ' Go to the ant, ye mothers ; consider her 

 ways, and be wise ' ? " 



It is generally in the warm days of August and Septem- 

 ber that the swarms of ants, both male and female, quit the 

 nest and ascend into the air, the males rising first. The 

 females are surrounded by hundreds of the males, and are 

 wafted here and there by the slightest breeze. They some- 

 times rise to a very considerable height. It is after this 

 danse de I 'amour that, from various causes, either from cold 

 or heavy showers, or from wind, or in the case of the 

 males from pending death, these insects fall sometimes in 

 countless numbers on the water, and are eagerly eaten by 

 the fish. One author observes : " In the beginning of 

 August I was going up the Orford river in Suffolk, in the 

 evening, when my attention was caught by an infinite 

 number of winged ants, both males and females, at which 

 the fish were everywhere darting, floating alive on the sur- 

 face of the water." 



There are six species of British ants the LARGE RED 

 or HORSE ANT, Formica rufa ; the JET ANT, F. fuliginosa ; 

 the RED ANT, Myrmica rubra ; the COMMON YELLOW ANT, 

 F. flava ; the SMALL BLACK ANT, F. fusca ; and the SLAVE- 

 MAKING ANT, F. sanguined* 



The Saw-Flies have been divided into very many genera 

 and species. They derive their name from the ovipositor 

 of the female, which is often differently constructed in 

 different genera. Some of these flies perforate the stalks 

 of plants, and there deposit their eggs, the hole made by 

 the ovipositor being filled with a frothy liquid, and some- 

 times a swelling like a gall-nut is formed. 



