8IH JOHN LrBBOCK OK THE HABITS 01? ANTS. 257 



Parthenogenesis in Ants. 



Although the workers rarely lay eggs, stiU they do so occasion- 

 ally, among ants as well as among bees and wasps. In the two latter 

 groups these virgin eggs always produce drones ; and the same will 

 probably be found to be the case with ants also. I have a nest of 

 Formica cinerea which I brought from Castellamare in December 

 1875, and which has no queen :' nevertheless eggs were laid in it 

 last spring, and these eggs produced winged individuals only, all, 

 I believe, males ; but unfortunately they emerged one day when 

 I was away from home, and I lost the opportunity of examining 

 them carefully. None of the eggs, however, produced workers. 



Parasites of, and on, Ants. 



The curious blind Woodlouse (PlatyartJirus Hoffmanseggii') is 

 very common in ants' nests in my neighbourhood. I have, how- 

 ever, never seen the ants take the slightest notice of them. More- 

 over, when my ants migrate from one nest to another, if the nests 

 are at a little distance apart, the Platyarthri remain behind. I 

 am disposed to think that they are mere scavengers. 



On the 14th of October I observed that one of my ants had a 

 mite attached to the underside of its head. The mite was almost 

 as large as the head, and must have been very inconvenient. The 

 ant could not remove it herself. She never came out of the nest, 

 so that I could not do it for her ; and none of her own companions 

 from that day to this (1 Feb.) have thought of performing this 

 kind office. I have also observed specimens of a minute red Mite, 

 which I believe to be new, in nests oi Lasius Jlavus. 



Certain species of Diptera, belonging to the family Phorid», 

 are also parasitic on ants. I have forwarded them to Mr. Verral, 

 who finds that some of them are a new species of the genus Phora 

 and that among them is also the type of a new genus, which he 

 proposes to call Platyphora, doing me the honour of naming the 

 species after me. I subjoin his descriptions as a separate paper 

 or appendix to my own. 



In conclusion I wish to acknowledge the valuable assistance 

 which I have received from my wife and daughters and their 

 governess, Miss "Wendland. "Without their aid I could not have 

 carried out the continuous observations above recorded. 



Having had some enlarged drawings made, for my own conve- 

 nience, of several specimens of the ants which I had been 



LINN. JOTTEN. — ZOOLOQ-T, VOL. XIII. 22 



