ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
469 
Mimetic Forms of Hypolimnas.* * * § — Col. C. Swinhoc’s investigations, 
an abstract of which has been published, had for their subject the changes 
undergone by the species of a small group of Butterflies as they are traced 
from one locality to another, and to ascertain the bearing of the facts on 
the theory of mimicry. Representations of the Indian Hypolimnas bolina 
are found in Malaya, Polynesia, and Africa ; though the local represen- 
tatives differ from one another and from the Indian form, they agree in 
possessing in one or both sexes a more or less superficial resemblance to 
some conspicuous species belonging to a specially defended group inha- 
biting the same locality. 
The author would appear to have devoted himself to such questions 
as (1) the special liability of the female to become mimetic; (2) the 
ancestral form from which the various mimetic varieties have been de- 
rived; (3) the^ mimetic resemblance to different species in the same 
locality ; (4) the divergent conditions under which mimicry appears 
in closely related species: and (5) the relation between selection and 
variation in the production of mimetic resemblance. 
Ants’ Nests. t — Dr. A. Forel gives a most interesting account of the 
nests of ants, nests temporary and permanent, nests natural and artificial, 
nests of earth and of wood and of other materials, nests tenanted by one 
kind of ant or by several, and so on. It is a fortunate thing when a 
master of the subject gives us in so pleasant a manner the results of his 
long experience. 
Notes on Ants.f — M. A. Forel has some notes on Acanthognathus 
ocellatus Mayr. Three long stylets end in a recurved trident, and each 
bears near its base a long strong tooth, curved downwards and inwards 
and ending in two denticles. The specimen was sent to Forel by 
Dr. Muller of Blumenau (S. Brazil) who gives a short description of the 
habits of this ant. With the bidentate end of the lower teeth the ants 
seize and carry their eggs and particles of earth. In the allied 
Strumigenys there are no lower teeth. F. W. Urich from Trinidad 
observes that Camponotus alriceps is nocturnal ; Cryptocerus atratus 
raises its abdomen in a threatening manner on to its head but does not 
sting ; Odontomachus hsematodes and Anochetus ( Stenomyrmex ) emar- 
ginatus , which sting virulently, are called “ Tack-Tack ” by the natives 
on account of the noise which they make by sharply shutting their man- 
dibles ; Azteca instabilis and Dolichoderus bispinosus have an aromatic 
odour ; the nests of the last-named are formed from the vegetable debris 
and particles of earth glued together by a resinous secretion, and not 
merely from the capsules of Bombax ceiba as has been believed. 
The Pharaoh- Ant.§ — Dr. J. Ritzema Bos gives an interesting report 
on Monomorium Pharaonis — a happily rare import to North Europe. 
The ants invaded the postal buildings, &c., in Leeuwarden (Friesland). 
They are so small that they cannot do much harm in the way of destroy- 
ing the eatables over which they swarm, for a million do not weigh 
* Proc. Rov. Soc. Lond., liii. (1893) p. 47. 
t Neujahrsblatt Nat. Ges. Zurich, xcv. (1892) p. 37 (1 pi.), 
t Bull. Soc. Yaud. Sci. Nat., xxix. (1893) pp. 51-3. 
§ Biol. Centrulbl., xiii. (1893) pp. 244-55. 
