THE YOUNG 



NATURA.LIST. 



Ill 



BRITISH ANTS— By G. C. BIGNELL. 



(Continued from page 95.) 

 constituting the so-called ant-eggs; after 

 remaining some days in this state they 

 emerge as perfect insects. In many cases, 

 however, they would perish in the attempt 

 if they were not assisted ; and it is very 

 pretty to see the older ants helping them to 

 extricate themselves, carefully unfolding 

 their legs, and smoothing out their wings 

 with truly feminine tenderness and delicacy. ' ' 

 The males and females of several species 

 arrive at maturity in August and September, 

 and shortly after take flight. Many instances 

 are recorded of the enormous numbers seen 

 in towns, roads, and rivers. On the 2Sth 

 August, 1866, the following paragraph 

 appeared in a London paper. " Smoke was 

 seen to issue from the small spire, above the 

 belfry, of the handsome church of St. 

 Maurice, in Coburg. The news soon spread 

 that the church-tower was on fire. The 

 fire alarm was given, according to the Ger- 

 man fashion, from the church-tower itself; 

 the brigade of volunteer firemen donned 

 their helmets, and rushed in all haste from 

 their ordinary vocations to the post of dan- 

 ger ; an express messenger was sent to the 

 burgomaster, who was gone to a neigbour- 

 ing village ; and the whole population turned 

 out to see the curl of smoke gradually as- 

 cending and disappearing in the clear blue 

 sky. Nor was their anxiety for the old 

 church without cause. Twice before in its 

 history — once in 1807 and again in 1812 — 

 had the lightning set this very tower on fire; 

 but whence now could the fire have come? 

 The spot whence the smoke issued was far 

 from any place in the tower ever used or 

 visited ; the day was bright and clear, and 

 there had not been, and was not any sign 

 of a storm. The heat of the sun, it is true, 

 was excessive, but no one could remember 

 an instance when fire had been kindled by 

 the lord of day. Whilst the spectators 

 eagerly discussed these questions, hundreds 



of eyes were watching the ascent of the fire- 

 men from point to point until they reached 

 the belfry under the spire. A scaffold was 

 then busily constructed, upon which a lad- 

 der was raised, and the cause and seat of 

 the fire closely investigated. Sundry motions 

 of the fireman on the ladder on high excited 

 no little mystery below, for he seemed to be 

 engaged in conflict with wasps or other war- 

 like insects. The news soon spread to the 

 earth that the cause of all this commotion 

 was the millions of ants which had settled 

 in countless numbers on the steeple, and as 

 they rose to perform their gyrations in the 

 air, had created the appearance of smoke." 



The Rev. W. F. White says that on the 

 19th September, 1876, he observed a similar 

 phenomenon. " On Doverow Hill, near 

 Stonehouse, Gloster, I observed a swarm 

 of ants rising and falling over a small beech- 

 tree. The sun was shining brilliantly upon 

 them, and on those also fluttering upon the 

 leaves of the little tree. The effect of those in 

 the air— gyrating and n^eeting each other in 

 their course, reminded me of the little 

 dodder, with its tiny clustered blossoms and 

 and its network of ramifying scailet threads, 

 over gorse or heather. I noticed the swarm 

 about thirty paces off, and it began to assume 

 the appearance of curling smoke ; at forty 

 paces you could quite imagine the tree to be 

 on fire. I captured some, and upon exami- 

 nation they revealed themselves as the male 

 of Mynnica loevinodis." 



Another instance is, I think, worth refer- 

 ing to. In this case the first lieutenant of 

 the hulk ' Clorinda,' in September, 1814, 

 while standing on deck, observed there was 

 something black floating down the Medway 

 with the tide. The boat was sent out and 

 a bucket-full of this strange matter was 

 brought on board, which proved to be ants, 

 and it was afterwards found that this mass 

 of living insects extended from the upper 

 part of Salt-pan Reach out towards the 

 (Continued on page 12^.) 



