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JOUENAL OF HOETICXJLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



[ May 23, 1S71. 



reported its proceecliingg to the world. Selecting a snitable 

 plot near the nest, the ant clears it of all obstructions, levels 

 it, and sows it with the seed of a grain-bearing grass. This 

 produces a crop, which is kept weeded, and when ripe reaped 

 by the ant, carried off, chaff and all, finally threshed, and 

 packed away in granaries. Let it be added, however, that this 

 narrative has not received credit with all entomologists. 



Our own ants, we might say, do so far resemble the gardener 

 that they dig up the earth and turn it over. Their object in 

 so doing is of course the formation of the nest or hill, which 

 may be either temporary or permanent. In this retreat ants 

 usually remain during the winter, solacing themselves, perhaps, 

 with the milk of some aphides they may have in hiding. Early 

 in the spring, however, they come forth and begin to air their 

 pufas, commonly called ants' eggs. By this time ants have 

 come into full activity, and have three principal objects before 

 them — namely, the obtaining of food for themselves and the 

 young brood, a matter of primary importance ; secondly, they 

 are largely occupied in tending this same brood, bringing it 

 through the larval and pupal stages to anthood; and lastly, a 

 certain part are told oS to act as masons, and these, woriing 

 mostly at night or when the weather is damp, are busy in 

 carrying about pellets of earth, altering old chambers and 

 making new ones. The yellow ant, it is said, employs, in ad- 

 dition to earth, sawdust and spider's web. En passant let us 

 note it is often a matter of some difficulty to discover where 

 the neat or nests are situated in a garden, for the ants make 

 many cross tracks and byepaths, nor do they drag off to the 

 nest all the objects which they lay bold of. 



The two species most common in gardens are the black ant 

 (Formica nigra), and the yellow ant (F. flava) ; the presence 

 of other species is rather unusual. In cultivated ground which 

 touches upon woods the large ant, known as the horse or wood 

 ant, is to be seen now and then. About London our usual 

 garden species is the black ant, and some interesting facts in 

 its economy have been recently pointed out by Mr. Elwin. 

 Eept in a formicary the black ants are remarkably scrupulous 

 as to cleanliness, removing all useless debris and the remains 

 of dead insects, fragments of meat, &c., very thoroughly. Their 

 strength and dexterity, as already described by authors, were 

 proved to be remarkable. Mr. Elwin saw a single ant carry 

 the entire abdomen of a wasp aoiked with water; and yet, he 

 adds, " In spite of their strength their tread must be wonder- 

 fully light, since they will walk heavily burdened up a crumbly 

 and perpendicular shaft without displacing a grain, whereas, if 

 I touched it ever so lightly myself it would crumble in." Ants 

 are very careful to keep quite clear the various entrances which 

 lead to their tunnels, and Mr. Elwin noticed that they would 

 even remove from these small lumps of earth, which, though 

 not in actual proximity to the openings, were near enough to 

 be in danger of being pushed over them. Also when they carry 

 off earth which they do not need from their tunnels they take 

 it to some distance, and usually pat it down with their antennae. 

 It seems, with regard to food, that ants will take at one time 

 what they reject at another, nor will they live long on either 

 animal or vegetable food alone. Though Mr. Elwin found that 

 ants never meet without crossing antennre, he thinks that 

 Hnber was mistaken in supposing that they thus caressed the 

 bodies of their dead companions. Not only, says he, do they 

 act the cannibal upon dead ants, but they will even sometimes 

 drag living ants which are sickly down the provision-hole. 



Amongst the winged creatures which appear in the Septem- 

 ber sunshine are male and female ants, scarcely identified as 

 such by many entomologists. Of these the females have the 

 stronger and larger wings, and survive their male companions, 

 scattering abroad in different directions to found new colonies, 

 or returning to the same nest to deposit eggs. Their wings, 

 for which they have no further occasion, they strip off them- 

 selves, or are deprived of them by the workers. 



But ere we take leave of the garden ant it is necessary to 

 consider how its attacks upon the produce of our gardens can 

 be warded off, and also how the insect can be destroyed, eithf r 

 during its excursions, or, more effectually still, by eradicating 

 it from its haunts. A variety of methods have been tried, 

 some very complicated, and, as is often the case, the simplest 

 plans prove the best. To keep ants off trees it has been 

 recommended to have the earth constantly dug up, and saw- 

 dust, coal ashes, and other matters of a nature repulsive to 

 ants applied to the roots. There is a practical difficulty in 

 carrying this out in many gardens which is against it, even 

 were it more efficacious than it really is. Sd also the practice 

 of drawing a line of tar round the trunks, though an effective 



check to the upward march of ants, is occasionally injurious to 

 the trees. A more successful compound which has been tried 

 in the midland counties is formed of one ounce of flowers of 

 sulphur mixed into two pints of train oil. This was used freely 

 upon walls, and also applied in the autumn to the trees most 

 attacked by ants. To snare or poison ants such things have 

 been used as bread crumbs mixed with sugar and white pre- 

 cipitate of mercury ; also solutions of lime, salt, and aloes 

 have been poured in along their tracks. The bait which Mr. 

 Newman recommends for entrapping the house ant would no 

 doubt secure quantities of garden ants also. It is thus made r 

 Pieces of string are boiled in a mixture of moist sugar and beer, 

 and then laid in positions where the ants will discover them.. 

 Sweet compounds are so pleasing to them, that the intelligence 

 communicated from one to another ere long brings a host to 

 the spot, and the strings when thick with them are taken up 

 and plunged into boiling water. During the colder months, 

 with few exceptions, the ants lie quietly in their nests or hills- 

 and should be dug up when discovered, but not on a warm day, 

 otherwise a good portion will escape unharmed. It has been 

 recommended to dig up the nest entire, and turn it over, with 

 as little disturbance as possible, then the ants remaining in it 

 are destroyed by the cold or wet weather. Soot is also some- 

 times sprinkled freely about the hills, or the ground near them 

 soaked well with a wash made by boiling rain water with black 

 soap and sulphur. Much has been said of late about the natu- 

 ralisation in these islands of exotic animals ; would it be worth 

 while to introduce a number of ant-eaters and give them the 

 run of our gardens ? Ant ingenuity, however, would probably 

 contrive to evade in a great measure the attacks of this quad- 

 ruped, even if it would make itself at home in Britain. 



Hardly have the Gooseberry bushes been relieved of the 

 presence of the chequered larva? of the Gooseberry Moth, ere 

 they will be observed in many places to be adorned with the 

 unpleasant -looking larvfe of Nejnaixis EiJiesii. Their groups^ 



Xematus Ribesii. 



rendered conspieuons by the habit they have of raising the 

 hinder extremities of their bodies in the air, frequently do not 

 fall within the gardener's cognisance until May ; but, though 

 by hand-picking quantities of them may be then destroyed, it 

 is better to seek out the eggs. These objects, which look hke 

 tiny beads, are laid very evenly along the ribs of the leaves, 

 and they may be detected without much trouble about the 

 middle of April. A judicious turning-over of the earth early in 

 the year will expose the chrysalis, which is buried a few inches 

 beneath the soil, and the appearance of part of the first brood 

 of flies thus prevented. When the weather is favourable these 

 larva; grow with great rapidity, though I believe the statement 

 is incorrect that they will feed up sometimes in ten or twelve 

 days. Two broods at least occur each year, some say more ; 

 and though most pdrtial to the Gooseberry, they have no ob- 

 jection at all to the flavour of Currant leaves. By juvenile 

 collectors of insects not as yet " up to snuff " these and other 

 Saw-fly larva; are carried oil under the supposition that they 

 will turn out to be the caterpillars of butterflies or moths. 

 They may be at once distinguished by counting the feet,_which 

 never exceed sixteen in the Lepidopterous order — i.e., six legs 

 and ten " elaspers " in modern phrase.— J. E. S. C. 



Violets.— I supplement my series of Violets sent a few weeks 

 back with blooms of V. oalifornica. It is a handsome sort with 

 no scent, deciduous, and quite hardy. As to the complaint of 

 shortness of stalk, you will see by the specimens sent that no 

 complaint can be made of this variety. [The length of the 

 stalk of the leaf was 11 inches, and of the flower 10 inches.] 



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