516 



FOLIAGES FORMICID^E. 



Terebrantia, and family Evttniidce, having the body 

 long, the ovipositor long and protruded, the posterior 

 shanks clubbed, and the fore wings with two sub- 

 marginal cells. The abdomen, which is long and 

 club-shaped in bath sexes, is attached to the thorax 

 close behind the scutellum, and, from its singular 

 position, it is very much elevated in flight. The 

 species, of which two only are found in this country 

 (the Sircx jaculalor of Linnaeus being the type), have 

 a good deal the appearance of ichneumons, which 

 they also somewhat resemble in their economy, being 

 parasites, feeding in the larva state upon other 

 insects. They are found flying about sand banks, 

 old walls and palings, prying into the holes and 

 crevices with their antennae, which, according to 

 Bergmann, they employ for the purpose of searching 

 for the latent grubs of certain bees, and other hymen- 

 optera. In this respect, therefore, they seem to 

 resemble the parasitic species of bees or sand-wasps ; 

 but it is more probable to suppose that they deposit 

 their eggs in the bodies of the larva?, instead of placing 

 them at random in the cells. In the perfect state 

 they frequent flowers, feeding upon nectar. They 

 are often to be seen hanging upon plants by their 

 jaws, in which position they take their repose. 



FOLIAGES is the first class of the grand division 

 Cellulares, containing the foliose and frondose ferns 



Examples of the fructification of foliaceous ferns. 



and their allies. It contains six orders, viz., Filices, 

 EquisetacccB, Lycopodiaccce, Marsileacets, Musci, and 

 Hepaticae, described under their several titles. 



FOOL'S PARSLEY is the Mthusa cynapium of 

 Linnaeus. A common British weed belonging to 

 UmbcllifercB. 



FORFICULA(LinnEeus) The Ear-wig. Agenus 

 of insects serving as the type of a distinct order, 

 named Dermaptera by Leach and Kirby, and Labi- 

 dourcs by Leon Dufour, but regarded by Latreille as 

 forming a section of the order Orthoptera. Having 

 given the general characters, and detailed the economy 

 of these insects, in the article EAR-WIG, we shall here 

 only add, that, as a group, they are technically cha- 

 racterised by having the tarsi three-jointed ; the lower 

 wings fan-shaped, and very much folded ; the wing- 

 covers short, square, and uniting with a straight 

 suture ; the body linear ; the head not concealed by 

 the thorax, which is shield- shaped. M. Serville has 

 lately established numerous genera, founded upon 

 exotic species, resting solely upon structural charac- 

 ters. The following are the British genera : 

 Forficula (Linnaeus). Antennae thirteen to fifteen- 

 jointed ; tarsi with the penultimate joint bi- 

 lobed ; wings two. Type, Forficula auricu- 

 laria (Linnagus). 



CJielidura (Latreille). Antennas twelve-jointed ; 

 tarsi with the penultimate joint bilobed ; 

 wings none. Type, Forficula albipennis (Char- 

 pentier), 



Labia (Leach). Antennae ten to twelve-jointed ; 

 tarsi simple. Forficula minor (Linnseus). 



Labidura (Leach). Antennae about twenty-five 

 jointed ; tarsi simple. Forficula gigantca 

 (Fabricius). 



FORMICIDyE (Leach.) An extensive family of 

 hymenopterous insects, belonging to the section 

 Aculeata, and to the sub-section Hfteragyna of La- 

 treille, comprising the Linnaean genus Formica, or 

 the numerous tribes of ants. Referring to the article 

 ANT for numerous particulars of a general and popu- 

 lar nature relating to these insects, we shall, in the 

 present article, give the technical characters of the 

 family and its chief genera, and add a description of 

 a few of the more interesting species, with such of their 

 peculiarities of economy as may appear desirable. 



In addition to the great character derived from the 

 existence of individuals of the female sex, whose 

 organisation has been so modified that the insects 

 become what are termed neuters, a peculiarity de- 

 pendent, as we have stated in the articles ANT and 

 BEE, upon the social character of the insects, the 

 Formicidas are distinguished by the wingless state of 

 their abortive females (in which respect they are 

 different from the bees and wasps, in which the 

 neuters are winged), by the great length of the basal 

 joint of the antenna? in the females and neuters, in 

 which they are elbowed at the extremity of this 

 joint, and by the first, or the first and second, joints 

 of the abdomen being knotted ; the upper lip of the 

 neuters is large, horny, and perpendicular, falling 

 between the jaws ; the eyes are rounded, or oval and 

 entire ; the jaws are large in many of the species, 

 the form of these organs varying greatly in various 

 species. In their structural characters the Formi- 

 cidce approach nearly to the Tiphice and Uon/li, 

 belonging to the section of the sand-wasps. The 

 neuters are much smaller than the males, and these 

 are smaller than the females ; the abdomen in the 

 first and last of these sexes is composed, as in the 

 other aculeate hymenoptera, of six segments, and 

 that of the males of seven joints. The females and 

 neuters are, moreover, furnished with a sting in many 

 of the species. In those species which are destitute 

 of a sting, the abdomen of the females is larger than 

 that of those individuals of the same sex in other 

 species which are provided with this instrument, but 

 in the males it is always smaller. It is a curious 

 circumstance, that the pupre of those species which 

 are furnished with a sting are inclosed in cocoons of 

 a whitish colour, whereas the stingless species are no* 

 so inclosed. These cocoons are formed of nume- 

 rous minute threads of silk, spun probably by the 

 larva. Those species which possess a sting emit a 

 venomous fluid into the wounds which they make, 

 which occasions severe pain ; whereas the stingless 

 species emit a reddish transparent fluid, which they 

 discharge upon the skin of the sufferer, causing 

 painful pustules. This fluid, according to De Geer, 

 is discharged from the anus ; but other, and we 

 should conceive less accurate observers, state, that it 

 is emitted from the mouth ; hence, probably, the 

 supposition that the ants first make wounds by biting 

 with their jaws, and then insinuate the poisonous fluid 

 from the anus into the wound. Of the various genera 

 into which this family has been divided by Latreille, 

 Jurine, and others, the more remarkable are, Formica, 

 Polycrgus, Ponera, Myrmica, and Atta. 



The genus Formica is distinguished by having the 

 footstalk of the abdomen composed of a single joint 

 the mandibles triauarular and denticulated at ti' 



