1905-1906.] 401 



been exchanged, the vehicles were remounted and the drive 

 resumed. On arrival at Church Hill, the residence of Mr. 

 Henry Verner, who had kindly granted permission to explore 

 his demesne, the members seated themselves on some felled 

 trees on the lawn, lunch was partaken of, and the party 

 were proceeding to explore the place when the arrival of four- 

 teen members of the Tyrone Field Club was announced, and, 

 after an interchange of courtesies, all mingled together to 

 pursue their different investigations. Church Hill is noted for 

 the great nests of the wood ant (formica rufa) which abound in 

 the pine woods beside the lake, and most of the members 

 wended their way thither. This is the largest of 

 our native species of ants, the winged males and females 

 measuring not far short of half an inch in length, and the two 

 kinds of workers being respectively about one-fourth and from 

 one-fifth to one-sixth of an inch long. The " ant hill" or nest 

 is made up of fir needles, together with all sorts of plant frag- 

 ments, the largest here seen being roughly oval in shape, and 

 measuring about ten feet long by five feet broad, and about two 

 feet in height. The vicinity of the nest is trodden down into a 

 number of "ant roads," which are the scenes of much busy 

 coming and going. The larger workers are principally con- 

 cerned when outside the nest with collecting building materials, 

 while an important duty of the smaller workers is to collect the 

 ^'honey-dew" of aphides. The substance in question is a sugary 

 fluid that exudes in considerable amount from certain glands of 

 these little creatures, from whence it is collected by these work- 

 ers and conveyed to the larvae and the adults, who have been 

 meanwhile engaged with the internal economy of the nest. The 

 food is by no means limited to honey-dew, but is of a very mixed 

 nature, for caterpillars, various adult insects, and miscellaneous 

 vegetable matter all figure in the bill of fare. The ant hill is 

 literally riddled with labyrinthine galleries expanding at in- 

 tervals into rounded chambers, and for some depth the under- 

 lying ground is mined with passages continuous with those 

 above. The most important and arduous duty of the workers 

 is to look after the eggs, larvae, and pupae, and these are dis- 



