36 NEW ZEALAND ENTOMOLOGY, 



an insect I shall have occasion to refer to presently. The 

 larvae are minute apodal grubs, which are dependent 

 entirely on the workers for food. When full grown they 

 spin an oval cocoon of white silk, in which they are con- 

 verted into pupae, and these the patient neuter ants may 

 be observed carrying away with great anxiety when dis- 

 turbed, risking their own lives to preserve their adopted 

 offspring from destruction. The females, or queens, of 

 which there are several in each nest, do not appear to 

 participate in these labours, but are only instrumental in 

 perpetuating the species, and the same remark applies 

 to the males. A large number of these winged males and 

 females may be observed in the nests about February, the 

 general emergence taking place during that month. At this 

 time they leave their native homes and mount to a great 

 height in the air, and after sporting for some hours they 

 re-alight on the earth, and in a short space of time cast 

 their wings. The neuters at this time are said to carry 

 them away to form fresh colonies, but I have not carried 

 my investigations sufficiently far to verify this in connection 

 with the New Zealand species. 



Family FORMICID/E. 



Ponera castanea (Plate III., fig. 4 $ , 4a $ , 4b, larva). 



This is a much larger species of ant than the last, but is 

 apparently not unlike it in habits. I have figured a male 

 (Fig. 4) and worker (4a), the female not differing from the 

 latter in any great degree, except in being provided with 

 wings. It will be noticed, however, that the male is very 

 divergent. The larvae of this insect are covered with 

 numerous minute spines, and may be often found in the 

 nests ; also the cocoons which they form when full grown, 

 these latter being of a dark brown colour, and rather 

 elongate. The winged insects are not frequently seen. 

 They appear only for a short time in February, the earlier 



