7614 Insects. 



volunteer ant be the cognomen by which hereafter we shall distinguish 

 this most intelligent of the family of the Formicidae, which, duly appre- 

 ciating and fully estimating the importance of the great National and 

 Patriotic Volunteer Movement, finds amongst its own communities 

 subjects ready to band themselves into corps of defence against their 

 natural enemies, the sanguine ants. That this feeling will spread 

 amongst the fuscous ants cannot be doubted, and you will probably 

 shortly receive communications from all parts of the country corrobo- 

 rating the above facts, and proving that the volunteer movement has 

 spread throughout the country into every community of the fuscous 



ant." 



Fkederick Smith. 



Occurrence of Aeentropus niveus at Hampstead. — A short time since ray friend Dr. 

 Knaggs informed me that when capturing Paraponyx stratiotalis, at the first of the 

 Hampstead Ponds, he had taken and seen specimens of the above insect, so I arranged 

 to accompany him on an early day, and make acquaintance with living examples of 

 this, to say the least, inconspicuous insect, which, though provided with a name, has 

 the misfortune of having a local habitation, the exact position of which among the 

 Insecta has been and perhaps is now rather uncertain. Yesterday evening, therefore, 

 we started for the locality, and, arrived there, immediately found a retinue of small 

 boys who were clamorous in their demands for the " tiddlers " we should capture, and 

 from their eagerness in watching our proceedings, rendered our position on the muddy 

 side of the pond uncomfortably uncertain. A. thick growth of Coufervae and other 

 water weeds occupies the edges for some distance out, and sitting on these we soon 

 saw the creatures we vvere iu quest of, and as the Doctor was provided with a net, the 

 handle to which was some ten feet in length, they were easily captured by carefully 

 inserting it in the water, and so bringing Aeentropus to laud clinging to it. However, 

 between eight and nine o'clock they began flying rather rapidly over the surface of the 

 water and close to it, occasionally coming on to the wet mud, where I had to dispute 

 the possession of one with a large white-bodied hunting spider, which gave chase in a 

 most ferocious manner. The best mode of capture would be to have a small, almost 

 flat net, on the end of the stout joints of a fishin^^-rod, and with this take them before 

 they fly in the manner before mentioned ; and I would certainly advise placing the 

 specimens captured in a coleopterist's bottle with laurel leaves, or tin boxes, as, like 

 most water-loving insects and plants, the little moisture they naturally possess is soon 

 absorbed in a chip or pasteboard pill-box, and in the morning they are dry and brittle. 

 From this cause, though I captured a considerable number, I have scarcely a dozen 

 specimens worth pinning. Among those captured only two were females, both in the 

 winged form and double the size of many of the males. I could see nothing of the 

 apterous form of the female, and imagine that a boat and very careful searching must 

 be required to find them. This is undoubtedly the nearest metropolitan locality for 

 the species ; the Croydon Canal, I believe, used to produce it, but the construction of 

 the railway destroyed that locality. — R. McLachlan ; 1, Park Road Terrace, Forest 

 Hill, June 18, 18(51. 



