November, 192 1, 



The Irish Naturalist, 



NESTS OF THE ANT STENAMMA WESTWOODI, 

 DISCOVERED IN IRELAND. 



BY R. A. PHILLIPS, M.R.I. A. 



According to Mr. H. St. J. K. Donisthorpe, author of 

 " British Ants, their Life History and Classification," a 

 standard work in which is summarized all that has hitherto 

 been known of the habits and distribution of these insects, 

 Stenamma Westwoodi (Steph.) West., is a rare species of 

 obscure habits. It occurs in south and central Europe, 

 the south and midlands of England, ranging from Cornwall 

 to Norfolk, and a single specimen was taken at Kenmare 

 River, Co. Kerry, by Mr. J. N. Halbert in 1898. 



All the records for this ant in England and the majority 

 of those for the Continent, refer to stray workers taken in 

 or near the nests of other ants and among moss and leaves 

 in woods and a few examples of the " sexes " mostly taken 

 on the wing. Nests have been very rarely found. Donis- 

 thorpe in his book (p. 142), mentions only two. He sayS 

 *' Von Hagens once found an independent colony at 

 Elberfeld, consisting of a dealated female and workers, and 

 Wasmann another, situated under a stone in a wood at 

 Laacher See (Rheinische Vordereifel) in August, 1889, some 

 eighty workers being present, no female however being 

 found." In neither of those colonies, it will be noticed, 

 were the three " sexes " seen and no mention is made of 

 larvae or pupae being present. 



Donisthorpe also quotes Andre as writing (in Spec. 

 Hym. Europe, ii., 312, 1881) — " It (Stenamma) occurs in 

 shady places in woods and forests, nesting in the earth 

 under moss and dead leaves, the nest being difficult to 

 detect." No description or particulars are given of nests, 

 if actually seen, in such situations. 



The frequent occurrence of Stenamma Westwoodi in the 

 nests of other ants has caused a diversity of opinion among 

 myrmecologists as to its habits, some regarding these 

 occurrences as accidental, others referring to the species 

 as a guest-ant, and it has also been looked on as a myr- 

 mecophilous species ; thus, F. Smith writing in Ent. Ann. 

 1863, 59, says : — " I am inclined to believe that M. lippula 



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