ROEBUCK : ON YORKSHIRE ANTS. 45 



An interesting feature in the economy of ants, as Mr. Smith 

 has lately written me, is that " in the nests of several species of 

 ants are to be found some of the rarer species of Coleoptera, 

 belonging principally to the Staphylinidse ; no less than seventeen 

 species of beetles have been found in the nest of Formica mfa, 

 five in that of F. f 11 sea, and fifteen in that of F.fuliginosa; some 

 of these are supposed to be in some way beneficial to the com- 

 munities in which they are found ; this is usually during the 

 breeding season, after whfch they are rarely found." 



In the Entom., March 1869, iv. 232, Mr. Newman gives the 

 name of Myrmica domestica to some insects sent him by Mr. 

 Isaac Sharp of Middlesbro', who states that a pot of preserved 

 ginger brought him some two years before by a sea captain from the 

 East, on accidentally breaking proved to contain these insects. 

 No doubt these are the same insects which inhabit bake-houses in 

 Leeds, and which when examined will no doubt add to our list 

 the name of Diplorhoptnun domesticum, Shuck., the House Ant. 

 They are very minute in size and are not originally indigenous to 

 this*country, the first specimens having been imported some fifty 

 years ago from Rio de Janeiro, although its subsequent dispersal 

 in this country has been very rapid. 



Formica rufa, L. The Wood Ant. Recorded in 1836 as 

 occurring in Kirkstall Woods near Leeds (Henry Denny in 

 Curtis's Brit. Ent. 1836, vol. viii., erratum to plate 582). 

 Wakefield district in July 1852 (F. Smith, Zool. x. 3626). 

 Recorded in 1864 for Brockerdale by the Wakefield Naturalists 

 (J. Hepworth in the ' Naturalist' for Oct. 15, 1864, i. 188). Nests 

 plentiful near Scarborough (T. Wilkinson, E. M. M. June 1865, ii. 

 14). Grass Low Wood, near Grassington; large colonies .existing 

 here are mentioned in a local guide book (Harker's Rambles in 

 Upper Wharfedale, 1869, p. 44). In 1872 I verified this 

 occurrence and found that the ants and their hills were familiar 

 objects to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who remember 

 them for thirty years back. Abundant in Sprotborough Woods near 

 Doncaster ! on Wharncliffe Crags near Sheffield ! and in the 

 Woods at Fryston near Pontefract ! No doubt introduced in all 



