THE yOUNG 



NATUKALIST. 



335 



3BITISn ANTS— By G. C. BIGNELL, 



(Concluded from page 319.^ 



I Tapinoma gracilescens. 



I The Rev. W. F. White, writing about this 

 ; nt, says, "There is yet another species of 

 .nt which has established itself in London, 



• .nd may be found always at home in my 

 irother's rectory in the city. It is a native 

 'f Madeira." " The presence of this ant in 



heart of the great city is a most inter- 

 sting fact. It is many years ago since I 

 irst observed this ant in my brother's house, 

 noticed it in large numbers in the rectory 

 itchen in 1876. The workers are very small, 

 if a black colour, with very long thin legs 

 nd antennse. They run very rapidly, and 

 re very difficu't to capture, except when 



• atisfying their hunger." 



Have been also found at the Crystal 

 'alace, Sydenham ; and at St. Leonards- 

 n-sea. 



OVA. 



In the foregoing papers I have not men- 

 ioned anything about the ova. The great 

 lifiiculty arises from the fact that Ants 

 .0 not like to be disturbed. Whether in 

 aptivity or in a state of nature, they 

 , trongly protest against having their nests 

 neddled with by man, or any other 

 ntruder. 



Sir J. Lubbock has paid great attention 

 o these very interesting creatures. Some 

 )f his observations 1 shall presently mention 



: tfter quoting a little from a very old book 

 )n English Ants, by the Rev. William 



I jould, A.M., printed in London, in 1747. 

 t is stated therein that " The Queen Ant 

 ays three different sorts of eggs, the male, 

 emale and neutral. The two first are 

 leposited in the spring ; the last in July, 

 md part of August." The following note 

 s appended to these remarks : — " These ex- 

 )eriments have been generally confined to 

 he common yellow and small black colonies ; 

 )ut from many circumstances, it appears 

 hat the process of the others is analogous 

 o it" (pp. 33, 35). The writer of these 

 capers has great veneration for old authors 

 md their books, but he is sorry to say he 

 :annot confirm the latter portion of this 

 sentence. 



he late Mr. F. Smith's remarks on Lasius 

 s (which is the common yellow ant, to 

 h Mr. Gould refers in the first portion), 

 partially corroborated; for he says, L. 

 1 .u.Hs appears to differ in one point of its 

 economy from all our native species : the 

 last brood of workers are carried down into 

 :he deepest recesses of their subterranean 

 dwelling. I have found numbers in this 

 situation in the depth of winter ; and such 

 larva: arc much more pubescent than we 



find during the summer months. We have 

 frequently inspected the dwellings of other 

 species, F. nigra, fusca, and cunicularia in win- 

 ter, but never found either eggs or larvje." 



The writer can confirm these remarks ; 

 and he has also searched the nest of Formica 

 rufa, during the winter, with the same result ; 

 but on the nth May last he was fortunate 

 to find a batch of newly deposited ova in a 

 nest of rufa. Five days before, he observed 

 ova in the nests of Formica fusca, Lasius 

 niger, and Myrmica ruginodes, and newly- 

 hatched larva} in the nests of Tctramoriuni 

 ccespitiim. 



Sir J. Lubbock, on the 14th August, 1876, 

 isolated two pair of M. ruginodis, captured 

 in his garden. The first eggs were laid 

 between the 12th and 23rd April, and some 

 were hatched during the first week in June. 

 The first larva turned into chrysalis on the 

 27th, and a second on the 30th June. On 

 the 22nd July the first worker emerged, and 

 a sixth larva had changed. On the 25th a 

 second worker appeared, and on the 28th a 

 third. This not only shows that the eggs 

 are laid in spring, it also proves that the 

 queen of Myrmica ruginodis had the instinct 

 of bringing up larvae, and the power of 

 founding communities. 



With regard to the laying three different 

 sorts of eggs, this is still a disputed point. 

 Mr. Dewitz is of opinion that queens and 

 workers are produced from different kinds 

 of eggs ; others are of opinion that the same 

 cause (viz., feeding), as applied to the devel- 

 opement of queens and males in the hive of 

 the honey-bee, will hold good with the ants. 

 Sir John Lubbock has partly proved this, 

 but it requires further experiments. He 

 says, in one of his lectures, " I was much 

 interested last year to find five queens 

 developed in one of my nests of Formica, 

 fusca;" and he attributes the cause to hav- 

 ing been " richly supplied with animal food." 

 Another nest, which does not appear to have 

 been so well fed, contained two queens, and 

 they produced only workers during the seven 

 years he had them. 



LONGEVITY OF ANTS. 



Sir John Lubbock obtained a nest of 

 Formica, fusca from the woods, in Decem- 

 ber, 1874, and he says, "It then contained 

 two queens, both of which are now still alive 

 (25 Sept., iSSi). I am disposed to think 

 that some of the workers now in the nest 

 were among those originally captured, the 

 mortality after the first few weeks having 

 been but small. This, of course. I cannot 

 prove. The queens, however, are certainly 

 seven and probably eight years old." He 

 also had a nest of Lasius nigcr (workers 

 only) for six years. 



FI.NIS. 



