March 3, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



317 



them in artificial nests. iN'aturally the greater 

 portion of the work is devoted to a detailed 

 account of each species known to be indige- 

 nous to Britain, under several heads, beginning 

 with the original description, the synonymy, a 

 good modern description and the geographical 

 range, and ending with full ethological notes 

 and a list of the myrmecophiles that have been 

 taken in the nests of each form. The syn- 

 onymy has been compiled with great care and 

 from many old and obscure sources, often in- 

 accessible to the American student. The work 

 concludes with a list of species introduced into 

 Britain, compiled in great part from scattered 

 records of specimens taken in the hothouses 

 of Kew Gardens and in dwellings, lumber 

 yards, etc., in other parts of the islands. 

 Among these introduced ants are a few dan- 

 gerous pests, notably the Argentine ant 

 (Iridomyrmex humilis), which was foimd "in 

 vast numbers in a house in Windsor Park, 

 Belfast, in 1900, where it had been observed 

 for eighteen months," and in the Botanic 

 Gardens of Edinburgh in 1912, and Pheidole 

 megacephala, which in many tropical regions 

 completely destroys all insects in its environ- 

 ment, except the Coceids, and disseminates 

 and attends these to the great injury of many 

 kinds of cultivated plants. 



One is surprised to find the indigenous ant- 

 faima of Great Britain so meager compared 

 with that of continental Europe. Only 40 

 forms are recorded by Donisthorpe, compris- 

 ing 28 species, 14 subspecies (often ranked as 

 species) and 8 varieties, representing only 

 about one third of the central European fauna. 

 Switzerland, a much smaller area than Great 

 Britain and one which has been very care- 

 fully explored by Forel, has 116 indigenous 

 Formieidse, comprising 63 species, 17 sub- 

 species and 36 varieties. The British fauna 

 not only lacks any species peculiar to itself, 

 but is also deficient in a whole series of gen- 

 era and subgenera known to occur in Cen- 

 tral Europe {Strongylognathus, Harpa- 

 goxenus, Teinnotliorax, Neomyrma, Cremato- 

 gaster, Pheidole, Messor, A-phaenogasier, Doli- 

 choderus, Bothriomyrmex, Plagiolepis, Poly- 

 ergus, Camponotus and Colohopsis). Most 



surprising is the absence of any species of the 

 great cosmopolitan genus Camponotus in 

 Great Britain. The carpenter ant (0. hercu- 

 leanus), which is common throughout the 

 northern portions of ISTorth American and Eu- 

 rasia, could hardly be expected to be absent, but 

 Donisthorpe shows that all records of its 

 indigenous occurrence in Great Britain are 

 very dubious. Some of the continental genera 

 such as Strongylognathus, Earpagoxenus, 

 Bothriomyrmex and Polyergus are rare and 

 parasitic and it is very doubtful whether they 

 will ever be found in the British Isles. Never- 

 theless, the singular parasitic Anergates atra- 

 tulus was not discovered there till 1912, when 

 it was taken by Crawley and Donisthorpe in 

 N'ew Forest, Hants. 



Donisthorpe does not consider the interest- 

 ing questions suggested by the relations of the 

 British to the continental ant faunas, espe- 

 cially the reasons for the depauperate condi- 

 tion of the former, for not only are there few 

 species in Britain, but these are represented by 

 comparatively few colonies and therefore indi- 

 viduals. Insular ant-faunas in nearly all 

 parts of the world are small, either because 

 many islands are of too recent geological origin 

 to have received many species by immigration 

 (e. g., Cuba and other West Indian Islands), 

 or because their original Mesozoic or early 

 Tertiary faimas have been greatly depleted or 

 entirely obliterated by glaciation. Thus Ice- 

 land is entirely destitute of ants, and the ant- 

 faunas of Great Britain and 'New Zealand are 

 undoubtedly the meager smrvivors of glacia- 

 tion. But when we consider that both of these 

 regions have mild, temperate climates and an 

 abundant vegetation, we find it more difiicult 

 to understand why the small number of sur- 

 viving species is not represented by a great 

 number of individuals, especially when we re- 

 member that Australia, Iforth Africa and 

 North America, which are, at least in part, 

 much more arid and may have more severe, 

 continental winters, nevertheless, have abun- 

 dant ant-faunas. A consideration of such 

 facts seems to indicate that moist, cloudy, cool 

 temperate climates are very unfavorable to 

 ants and that this may account for the meager 



