240 Miscellaneous, 



inquirers for it. The animal and shell are closely allied to the Den- 

 talium Trachea (or imperforatum) of Montagu {ccEcum of Fleming), 

 for which that accurate observer of British MoUusca, A'Ir. Clark, pro- 

 posed the significant name of Dentaliopsis. It may have been con- 

 founded by British conchologists with the young of Skenea depressa, 

 but is a very distinct species. The Helix nitidissima of Adams was 

 evidently known to Montagu, as in one of his letters to Mr. Dillwyn 

 he mentions having found " a recent (minute) British Ammonite," 

 which this beautiful species resembles in form and markings. — 

 J. GwYN Jeffreys. 



Have Ants, when deprived of their Queen, the power of selecting one of 

 their number and converting her into a fertile female ? 



Phil. Hall, Leeds, January 10, 1848. 

 Dear Sir, — I shall feel obliged if any of your entomological 

 readers can inform me whether they know a species of Black Ant, 

 inhabiting this country, whose queen is not distinguished from the 

 workers by her larger size. My reason for wishing for this infor- 

 mation arises from the following circumstance : — In August 1846 I 

 procured a colony of black ants, which I supposed were the Formica 

 fusca, from the woods near Kirkstall Abbey. I found them beneath a 

 patch of moss and stones, and consisting of about sixty individuals. 

 I suspected at the time that the queen escaped me, as no one specimen 

 appeared distinguished from the remainder by regal characters, which 

 I frequently regretted. On the 29th of March 1847, however, when 

 looking at my formicary, I observed one ant carrying a small white 

 mass in its mandibles, which upon closer examination I found to my 

 great astonishment was an eg^^ ; on the following day there were pro- 

 bably twenty eggs, and the number continued to increase until June, 

 when there would be at least sixty, of different sizes, and some had 

 become larvse. Two of these increased in size so much as to lead 

 me to suspect they would prove the larvae of queens, being consi- 

 derably larger than the ants themselves. By the end of July they had 

 become pupae, and were inclosed in cocoons as large as a grain of 

 wheat ; these now appeared to absorb all the attention of the workers, 

 and the remainder of the eggs and larvae decreased, for want, as I pre- 

 sume, of sufficient attendance. During the month of August I found 

 one day all dead or dying with the exception of three or four speci- 

 mens, which I could not account for unless it arose from the formi- 

 cary having been exposed to a great heat from the sun in my window 

 during the day, from which they could not escape, having forgotten 

 to put up the shutters, which are for the prevention of light and too 

 great a degree of heat. 



The point however upon which I want information as connected 

 with the above colony is this : — From whence did the eggs proceed } 

 As I have before stated, there was not one I could suspect more than 

 another of being the royal mother from external characters, while in 

 seven other colonies of different species I then possessed, the identi- 

 fication was very easy and self-evident. Now as we know bees when 

 deprived of their queen have the power of selecting one or more 



