THE yOUNG NATUKALIST. 



287 



BRITISH ANTS— By G. C. BIGNELL. 

 (Contimied from page 271 J 



Habitat. — Rare. Sherborne, Dorset ; 

 Ventnor, Isle of Wight. 



Genus SOLENOPSIS, Westw. 



This genus may be easily known from any 

 other British species of this group. The 

 male has the mesothorax without the im- 

 pressed converging lines observcible in all 

 the others; the female and worker have the 

 metathorax without spines ; labial palpi and 

 maxillary palpi with only two joints ; the 

 antennae of the male with twelve joints, the 

 female and worker with ten ; the club form- 

 ed with two joints. 



1. Solenopsis fugax, Ltr. 



Male. — Black, shining ; mandibles, an- 

 tennae, and legs brown ; tarsi and inner 

 margins of the mandibles testaceous ; entire 

 insect covered with long pale hairs ; man- 

 dibles with three teeth ; scape of the antennae 

 short, about as long as the second joint of 

 the flagellum, but thicker ; the three apical 

 joints are longer than the others ; head and 

 thorax finely rugose ; abdomen shining, 

 nodes of the petiole finely rugose ; wings 

 hyaline, nervures pale. Length, 5 mill. 



Female. — Brown-black, shining ; mandi- 

 bles, antennae, and legs paler ; entire insect 

 hairy, like the male; mandibles with four 

 teeth ; abdomen shining and punctured, 

 nodes of the petiole somewhat rugose ; wings 

 hyaline, nervures pale. Length, 6 mill. 



Worker. — Pale yellow, shining, covered 

 with long pale hairs ; clypeus bidentate ; 

 mandibles with four teeth ; scape of the 

 antenna} not quite so long as the flagellum, 

 but reaching almost to the middle of the 

 apical joint ; apical joint almost as long as 

 all the other joints of the flagellum together ; 

 r.l>domen with scattered punctures ; first 

 node of the petiole very wide behind and 

 rounded, second slightly transverse ; legs 

 hairy. Length, 2 mill. 



Habitat. — Rare in England, and very 

 local. It has been taken at Southend and 



Deal. 



M. Ford's remarks on the habits of 

 5. fuf/ax are too interesting to be passed 

 over, he having paid much attention to this 

 little ant, in the Canton of Vaud, Zurich, 

 and in the department of the DrOme (south 

 of France). He always found them inhab- 

 iting the nests of other ants, naming no less 

 than sixteen species; and only found three 

 or four isolated nests, and these he con- 

 sidered were originally inhabited by a larger 

 species, but had been abandoned, 5. fngax 

 not being able to follow, in consequence of 

 their want of strength to remove the females, 

 which are about forty times heavier than a 

 worker; while he daily met with it in the 

 nest of different species, — sometimes form- 

 ing its runs on one side of the nest, at others 

 in the very centre, always keeping the gal- 

 leries and channels distinct from those of 

 its host, as, according to M. Forel, they are 

 bitter enemies when they meet. He goes on 

 to say, " Let us take a particular case, where 

 the host is Formica fusca. Scarcely have 

 we opened the nest when we see two desper- 

 ate enemies in the presence of each other. 

 The Solenopsis hang on with rage to the legs 

 of the fusca, which turn them over and 

 trample them down without noticing them. 

 Four or five Solenopsis are often seen attach- 

 ed to a single leg of a worker of fusca, or a 

 dozen clinging to its entire body. They 

 fasten themselves on, bend round their ab- 

 domen, and work their sting violently, which 

 quickly exhausts them, for they are less 

 robust than courageous. Sometimes a 

 is seen to succomb under the number of its 

 enemies ; at other times to escape, more or 

 less crippled ; ordinarily it disengages itself, 

 for as soon as a SoU-nopsis lets go, it falls, 

 and it suffices the fusca to make two or three 

 steps in order to be out of reach ; others are 

 violently thrown off, or removed by rubbing 

 against divers objects." 



On reading this we wonder how such 

 {To be continued on pa^e 303.) 



