1 88 OTHER DENIZENS OF THE WOODS 



about double as large. In similar situations is also found the common yellow ant 

 (L.flavits), a species very like the black ant, which it resembles in size, being one 

 of the smallest species of the group. Covered with long thin hairs, it is light or 

 dark yellow in colour; the females having a darker head and similarly coloured 

 thorax, with the base, tip, and edges of the wings of the abdomen reddish yellow. 

 In the nest of this ant may be found, although rarely, a small beetle (Claviger 

 testaceus) belonging to the section with three-jointed feet, distinguished by an 

 eyeless head, and simple clawed feet: both in the larval and adult condition this 

 beetle is carefully tended and fed by the ants, in order that they may suck from 

 the hair-tufts on its elytra a juice that is secreted there. 



As its name implies, the tree-ant (Camponotus ligniperdvbs) generally lives 

 on the trunks of trees, although more rarely it may be found under stones, or in 

 the ground in forests and gardens. The workers are distinguished by the brilliant 

 black head and abdomen, the dark red thorax and basal portion of the abdomen, 

 the absence of any deflection between the three rings of the thorax, and the 

 presence of two rows of bristles to every abdominal ring: on the other hand, 

 the males are black throughout. Besides this species, the horse-ant (C. her- 

 cidaneiis) may be met with in decayed trees. Its fertile females measure f inch 

 long, its workers about f inch long, and its males about £ inch. In colour this 

 ant is almost wholly black, brownish only on the legs and part of the thorax; 

 the abdomen being shimmering greyish white, on account of the grey hairs with 

 which it is covered, while the males are dull in hue except for the brilliant 

 abdominal rings. 



The red ant {Myrmica Icevinodis), which abounds in woods and gardens under 

 stones, turf, and stumps, is brownish red in colour, with the middle of the first 

 abdominal ring marked by a broad streak of dark brown. While the workers 

 cany rather long pointed spines on their wrinkled thorax, the fertile females have 

 shorter and broader spines, and the males a pair of protuberances at the reddish 

 brown tip of the abdomen. Under similar conditions is frequently found the 

 turf-ant (Tetramerium ccespitum), a species of very diverse colouring, often 

 mostly brown, although the males are black. The body and legs of this ant are 

 fringed with yellow bristles, and the thorax is longitudinally striped. The workers 

 have the head equal in length to the thorax, but much broader, while the thorax 

 carries serrated, stunted, and upright spines; in the fertile females the head is 

 shorter and narrower than the thorax, and its spines are almost horizontal. 



To quite another family belong the ichneumon-flies, or ichneu- 

 Ichneumon-Flies. * _ , . , . r . 



mon-wasps (Icfineumomdce), comprising to a great extent compara- 

 tively large insects, characterised by their slender antennae, which are long, 

 many-jointed, and often multicoloured, and nearly always maintain a quivering 

 or vibrating motion. The larva of the common ichneumon-fly (Ichneumon 

 pisorius), which is legless, and without antennas or eyes, lives only on animal- 

 matter, and is produced from eggs that have been either fastened, or loosely stuck 

 by the female to other insects, especially caterpillars, or which have been placed 

 within the bodies of such insects by means of the ovipositor ; the unwilling hosts 

 being caterpillars, maggots, spiders, plant-lice, and other insects. The larvae that 

 issue from the eggs devour their host either inside or out, sometimes singly, and 



