NOTES ON COLLECTING. 191 
In one nest this was a very difficult business, the moment the nest was 
opened all the ants were in a ferment attempting to escape. In oneor 
two others one could open the nest considerably, yet the ants made 
little attempt to escape, those that did so being individual wanderers, 
without any special object in view, and not a few ants retreating, even 
hurriedly, into the nest on finding there was an opening to the outer 
world. 
Feeding them was often difficult, especially in winter, being kept in 
a temperature of say about 60° they did not in any sense actually 
hibernate, my procedure was guided by instructions given me by Mr. 
Donisthorpe, and I found my experience, so far as it went, precisely 
agreed with what he told me. Honey on a slip of glass was always 
more or less acceptable, and the slip was almost always used by the 
ants as a midden, though sometimes they would use an awkward 
corner of the nest for this purpose. I found that eggs were laid, in 
the few cases in which I had queens, and the larve fed up more rapidly 
when plenty of food was given, but at times they did not seem to 
accept, or use, the food given so fully as I expected, they certainly 
appeared to get tired of any diet and welcomed a change. Insect 
imagines seemed to please them best, they would hardly look at larve, 
nor on the few occasions I tried it did they touch meat. Harwigs they 
liked, but rapidly got tired of them. Diptera, especially Tipulidae, 
were most appreciated of anything I gave them; house-flies, like ear- 
wigs, were soon neglected. They would not touch the common yellow 
dung-fly. They all refused earthworms, though I have seen ants about 
a dead earthworm on paths, etc., but these ants were probably not 
Myrmica. Warvee of other genera of ants, of which wmbratus and flava 
were tried, were neither accepted as brood nor eaten, but rejected and 
placed on the midden.—T. A. Cuapman. September, 1918. 
Some Surrey Cotnoprsra.—Two specimens of Mordella aculeata 
were taken by me near Horsley, August, 1896, and June, 1897, one by 
sweeping the lone grass in a plantation of young firs, and the other on 
the roadside herbage in one of the lanes. A specimen of Agrilus sinu- 
atus was swept up by me at Mickleham, in September, 1909, close to 
some very large hawthorns. These species are not mentioned in the 
“Victoria History of the County of Surrey,” and should have been 
recorded before. Subsequent visits have not produced further 
Specimens. 
Among the Lady-Beetles* taken by me at Oxshott this year isa speci- 
men of Coccinella septempunctata, the front angles of the pronotum, 
which are usually white, being of a bright red, quite unicolorous with 
the elytra; a remarkably pretty insect when alive. Another good 
thing from the same locality is a specimen of Anatis ocellata, which 
seems referable to ab. hebraea of Linneus, who, however, described it 
as a separate species from ocellata. The spots are united into longi- 
tudinal streaks, partly abbreviated. There seems to be only one other 
British record of it—in 1895—though Weise in 1879 gives England 
* This expression, ‘‘ Lady-Beetle,’’? which is used in the publications of the 
Carnegie Institution of Washington, is far preferable to ‘‘ Lady-Birds,’’ and it 
would be well if its use became general.—_W.J.A. [I must say I do not agree with 
Mr. Ashdown; ‘‘ Lady-bird’’ being a much older and more preferable name. 
—H.D.] 
