70 HYMENOPTERA. 



August, and it was not until the month of June this year 

 that I again went to that locality. 



So much fine hot weather preceded the time of my visit, 

 that I calculated upon a more rapid development of the 

 sexes, and probably I was right to some extent ; but, although 

 I found, during the first week in June, plenty of the sexes 

 spun up in the their cocoons, I did not succeed in obtaining 

 a single perfect ant of the male or female sex. Finding 

 myself thus disappointed, I resolved upon bringing home, 

 and establishing a colony of this ant in my own garden. 



On the morning of my leaving Bournemouth, I rose early, 

 and, taking a spade and a tin box, I set out for the purpose 

 of obtaining a nest oi Formica exsecta. At the early hour 

 of five o'clock, I found a nest with its inmates apparently in 

 quiet repose, not an ant was to be seen ; I carefully marked 

 out the size of my tin case round the nest, and soon suc- 

 ceeded in digging up a good sized turf, on which, in a per- 

 fectly undisturbed state, was the nest I so longed to obtain ; 

 in depositing the nest inside the tin case, I scarcely disturbed 

 the ants; a few issued forth to see what was going on, but as 

 I moved them so gently, they appeared satisfied, and soon 

 retreated back into the nest. With great care I brought 

 my treasure to London, and on the evening of the same 

 day had the satisfaction of seeing a nest of Formica exsecta 

 established in my garden at Islington. 



It was a great pleasure thus to have, as it were, com- 

 pletely overcome a great disappointment; a week or two 

 would, I thought, produce me the sexes of the ant I had so 

 long desired to obtain. Alas! how little do we foresee 

 coming t^vents ; in this instance, they cast no " shadows 

 before ;" the fulfilment of my wishes appeared a mere matter 

 of time, as to when they would be consummated. 



