60 THE ENTOMOLOGIST'S RECORD. 



which explained many things he had already noticed himself. From 

 that time he determined to become a Historian of ants all his life — a 

 resolve which he has always kept. 



It is with regret we notice in a list of names of myrmecologists 

 (p. xiv.) to whom the author says the science and he himself owes 

 much, that only one Englishman is mentioned [he being a big game 

 hunter and not a myrmecologist] ; this we trust is only an, oversight. 



The author considers that the Ponerinae is the most ancient sub- 

 family, and the other subfamilies are directly descended from it. This 

 is the view we hold ourself, though it is not the one held by all the 

 first myrmecologists. 



Forel states the male ant only lives a few days ; perhaps it is a 

 little hypercritical to dispute this statement, as he is probably speaking 

 generally, or in comparison with the lives of workers and females. 

 Nevertheless male ants can be kept alive for months after the marriage 

 flight as we have shown {British Ants, p. 27), and this can also take 

 place in nature (I.e., p. 207). 



As fecundation only once takes place in the life of a female ant, 

 Forel calls the female a kind of secondary hermaphrodite, who 

 fecundates herself every time she lays. 



In referring to the rapidity with which, and the vast areas over 

 which, Iridoniyrmex kumiiis has spread in recent times the author 

 says, it has already been recorded from the centre of France. In 

 British Ants, p. 342) we have shown that it occurred as a considerable 

 pest in Belfast in 1900, and that it had been sent to us from Edinburgh 

 in 1912. Since this was published we have received it from Enfield ; 

 Eastbourne, where we understood a number of houses have been 

 practically rendered uninhabitable by it, and Guernsey. 



In the chapter on Fossil Ants references are made to most of the 

 writings on the subject, including that of Westwood in 1854, who the 

 author remarks made many mistakes. He however does not appear to 

 be aware that nearly all the British fossil ants have recently been 

 described and brought up to date — see Cockerell Proc. U.S. Nat. Mns. 

 *9 483-86 (1915); Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, (s.9) 6 277-78 (1920) ; 

 Donisthorpe Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, (s.9) 6 81-94 (1920). 



In bringing this short notice to a close we quote one or two remarks 

 of the author's, which it may be hoped will encourage more students 

 to take up the study of ants— the most fascinating of all insects. 



" Let us grant at once that the detailed anatomy of the eggs and 

 larvse of ants is still to be made." 



" Is there enclosed in the egg (as with Termites) the power or the 

 structure to differentiate the diverse polymorphic forms which spring 

 from it ? It is possible, but it is not yet proved." 



" Nothing has yet been proved to show if all the eggs of an 

 impregnated female are fecundated when laid, or if some of them are 

 not fecundated." 



"I repeat that the anatomical and ontogenetic study of ants 

 is still nearly entirely to be made, and we do not know where and 

 when the differences of the individual polymorphic ? , S , % , U . 

 commence with them." 



" Here is a metamorphosis as complete' as possible, but the 

 anatomy of this transformation is not yet known ; that is to say the 

 details of its ontogeny. Here again is a world to be discovered, a 

 world in which the larval body is transformed in a few days, into a 

 body ready to become an ant." — Horace Donisthorpe. 



