♦ KNOAVLEDGE ♦ 



[Sbpt. 25, 1885. 



speak of as ants, and that are so frequently seen running 

 about on the ground, are merely the workers. 



So much with respect to ants in genera). We may 

 now proceed to the study of the particular species above 

 retVn-L"l to — viz., MononwriuM Fharionis. It is a minute, 

 rcddisli insect, which, though apparently not yet distri- 

 buted throughout the country, being most plentiful in the 

 south-east, is nevertheless very abundant where it occurs, 

 and therefore, in consequence of its voracious habits, a 

 source of considerable annoyance. The worker (Fig. 1 ), 

 the only member of the community usually seen, is reddish- 

 yelltfw in colour, and is very minute, being scarcely -jV in. 

 in length, and so one of the smallest of our British ants. 

 There is a peculiarity in the abdomen of this little crea- 

 ture wliich at once reveals the family to which it belongs. 

 British ants are divisible into three families — the Formi- 

 ridr, the Poneridw, and the Mynnicidce. The last is 

 readily distinguished from the other two by the fact that 

 the first two joints of the abdomen are much narrowed, so 

 as to form what is called a " petiole," because it seems as 

 though the abdomen were united to the thorax by a kind 

 of stalk ; in the other two families it is only the first joint 

 that is modified in this waj'. Microscopical examination 

 shows that our present insect 

 has two lobes to the petiole, 

 therefore it belongs to the 

 Myrmicidiv. These two lobes 

 are considerably raised or 

 swollen above, so that when 

 the insect is viewed in profile 

 its contour presents a succes- 

 sion of elevations and depres- 



A Fig. 2. —Side view of bodj- of 



\ ^ """ 



The head is very large, and 

 \ the antennse are about half 

 \ as long as the whole body, 

 elbowed at the base, and 

 Fig. I. — Worker o£ llonomo- clubbed at the tip. Two black 

 rium Pharaonis. specks at the sides of the head 



are the compound eyes, which, 

 for an insect, are unusually small in proportion to the 

 size of the head. The abdomen is smooth and shining, 

 but the rest of the insect is dull, in consequence of 

 the minute and close punctuation with which it is 

 covered. 



The life-history of an ant is similar to that of a bee. 

 It commences life as an egg, which is very minute, as 

 might be expected from the small size even of the perfect 

 insect. The oval, yellowish-white objects so frequently 

 found in ants' nests in the summer, and popularly called 

 " ants' eggs," are not eggs at all — a conclusion the truth 

 of which a little thought would at once render apparent, 

 since they are as big as the insects themselves, and 

 therefore could not be their eggs. From the eggs are 

 hatched little footless maggots of a whitish or greyish 

 colour, which are tended and fed with great assiduity 

 by the patient workers. 



In due course they become pupa;, in which condition 

 they resemble in shape the perfect insect, but have, as 

 usual, all their limbs folded up underneath them. 

 Previous to the assumption of this stage, some ants, such 

 as the Forviicidce, envelope themselves in an oval silken 

 cocoon, and thus acquire a resemblance to eggs ; and it is 



these pupa;, thus enveloped, that constitute the so-called 

 "ants' eggs " referred to above. But the Mynnicidce, to 

 which our ]ircscut insect belongs, do not form cocoons, 

 l>uf I "i • i'l.ut this protection. The pupoe, since 

 th' ii l]iless even than the larva", equally 



lu 1 I f tlie nurses, though there is now no 



feci,,,- t-i i.' .Im„-. 



When the insect is ready fm- it> ti,,;! .1, ., ,. , ■!,, re is 

 still more work for the nur.se^ ; , I ; i-sist 



it out of its enveloping pellirlr. ti i, ; , _ ■ ■, its 



cramped limbs, to lead it abuut llu ia,.-i, ;.:. 1 ^.i^Li-.iIly, 

 to introduce it to all the activities of it.s new life. 



We have said that these little ants have a voracious 

 appetite ; this the householder who is unfortunate enough 

 to shelter colonies of them in his dwelling will soon find 

 out. Nothing edible comes amiss to them, but they are 

 specially partial to sweets and greasy snbstances. Cakes, 

 pastry, sugar, and dripping may perhaj s be said to be 

 their especial favourites. Any dainty little morsels which 

 the careful housewife has put away, as she thinks, in 

 safety, ready for future use, are soon found out by stray 

 members of the ant community ; the news is telegraphed 

 to the rest, and soon crowds are wending their way to the 

 feast. When once they have assembled in considerable num- 

 bers at the place of entertainment, it is difficult for 

 their human foe to know how to get rid of them ; they are 

 almost too small to be picked off by the finger, and the 

 operation, too, would be somewhat tedious ; an endeavour 

 to blow them off might have just the opposite effect to 

 that intended, and cause them to adhere to the somewhat 

 sticky compound they might be attacking : and altogether 

 it is not surprising that maledictions are often .showered 

 on their devoted heads, when they are caught iu the act 

 of pilfering. 



It is extremely difficult to protect anything from 

 them : they are so small that they will insinuate them- 

 selves into the smallest possible openings and crevices, 

 and very little short of hermetical closing is of any avail 

 against them. Should they happen to invade the home 

 of an entomologist, he may well tremble for his treasures, 

 for dead insects are just as acceptable to them as cakes 

 or fruit. I remember having had in my young days 

 several painful experiences of this kind. On one occasion 

 I had just braced out on the setting-board a beautiful 

 specimen of the Wood Leopard Moth (the first of its kind 

 that had fallen to my lot), and had put it aside to dry ; 

 on looking at it the next morning I wa.s horrified at dis- 

 covering that two large holes had been excavated in its 

 great fat body, and that as a cabinet specimen it was 

 ruined ; the crowds of tiny red robbers clustered round 

 the insect, and, running over the board, told the tale of the 

 origin of the holes, and many were the corpses that fell 

 as an expiation. On other occasions I have had the 

 bodies of small moths completely eaten up by these 

 destructive little creatures while the specimens were 

 drying on the setting-boards. 



Monoiiwriiiin is not the only foreign ant that has taken 

 up its quarters with us, though by far the commonest. 

 One or two others are found occasionally in hothouses, 

 the high temperature of which serves to remind them of 

 the tropical climate of their native regions. 

 (To he continued.) 



The LAi,.\NDE-Cn.\PEEON Battery.— The Lalande-Cliaperon 

 (oxide o£ copper) battery has been adopted for exchange and line 

 service by the .Societe Generale des Telephones of I'aris 



Gas at Paris.— The Parisian Company for Lighting and Heating 

 by Gas has announced a dividend at the rate of .SOJ per cent, upon 

 its share capital for 1881. The corresponding dividend for 1883 

 was at the still higher rate of 31 per cent. 



