ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
375 
colony. Various types of nest are described, and cases are cited where 
two colonies apparently nest together. Such cases may be (1) mere acci- 
dental juxtaposition, when two or more colonies seek to take advantage 
of a specially favoured spot, but have no true association ; (2) there 
may be double nests, as where Solenopsis fugax makes its tiny galleries 
within the more massive walls of the nest of Formica fusca, and from 
that position of vantage steals and devours its neighbours’ nymphs. Or 
they may be (3) genuine mixed colonies, where two different species 
live in harmony in one nest. After giving full instructions for the 
making of an artificial nest which will allow of constant observation of 
the inmates, the author gives a very graphic account of the daily life 
of an ant-colony, and the relatively enormous amount of labour required 
to make and maintain the nest, feed the entire community, and attend to 
the young. No small portion of this labour consists in daily moving all 
the eggs and young from chamber to chamber, according to the changes 
of temperature, The eggs, which are adhesive, are removed in packets, 
the smaller larvee in bundles attached together by the hooked hairs 
( poils d' accrochage) borne among the ordinary defensive hairs, but the 
larger larvm and the pupee have to be carried one by one. 
Descriptions are given of the alimentary canal, the changes it undergoes 
in the larval and pupal stages, and its final adaptation to the"collecting 
of food and carrying it for distribution ; of the structure of the antennae 
and their role as sensitive organs, of the organ of stridulation, the man- 
dibles, and the sting ; of the secretion of the poison-gland, and of the 
alkaline gland beside it, which may, the author thinks, neutralise the 
acidity of any venom left in the sting after it has been used. Animals 
which are parasitic on ants in varying degrees, the relations of colonies 
among themselves, the development of the instinct of slave-making, and 
the keeping of pets are all treated of ; and the paper concludes with an 
account of some remarkable exotic species, e.g. the honey-ants ( Myrme - 
^ocystus ) of Mexico and Colorado, and the leaf-cutting ants (Atta fervens 
and A. discigera ) of Texas and Brazil. 
Notes on Ants.* — Herr E. Wasmann makes some remarks on a 
small collection of ants from Madagascar. There were several new 
species, which will be described by Eorel. In the nests of Cremasto- 
gaster JRanavalonse For. var. Paulinse-Banavalonee there were numerous 
myrmecophilous insects of different orders. The beetles seemed to be 
all new forms, and will be described. 
Of much interest were some cases of myrmecoidie ” or mimetic 
resemblance to ants. A form belonging to the Phanapterid Orthoptera, 
and related to Myrmecopliana fallax Brunn, resembles a small worker 
of a black Camponotus. Another form belonging to the Hemiptera, 
suggesting Alydns calcaratus L., is mimetic of a PolyrTiachis. A third 
form, a spider of the family Attidse, related to Salticus formicarius , 
resembles a red-headed Odontomachus. 
In a second short paper,']' Wasmann describes from the same col- 
lection an ergatoid (worker-like) female of Champomyrmex Coquereli 
Bog., and gives a list of the species in which ergatoid or ergatomorph 
forms are known. They are the rule in Tomognathus sublsevis Nyl., 
* Zool. Anzeig., xx. (1897) pp. 249-50. f Tom. cit., pp. 251-3. 
