The Red House-Ant. 289 
meat on a window board frequented by these little depre- 
dators ; it was soon absolutely covered by them, and thus 
enabled me to destroy thousands every few hours that I 
returned to examine the bait, for several days, during which 
time their apparent numbers scarcely diminished.” 
Similar means might be resorted to with us in houses 
where they abound; and if the bait were placed near the 
spots whence they are observed to issue, very great 
numbers might be annihilated by pouring a little boiling 
water over them. I am, however, afraid that no radical 
cure can be effected without the destruction of the nests 
which contain the embryonic progeny. Their nests being 
constructed within or behind walls or wainscoting, or 
under hearthstones and behind ranges, they are difficult to 
get at. They swarm, I have no doubt, externally in the 
air; and although the time when this takes place has not 
been observed, I expect atmospheric influences operate as 
powerfully upon them as upon the rest of the tribe, and 
that it therefore occurs during sultry, still days in the, sum- 
mer andearly autumn, whenthe air is charged withelectricity. 
This should be esqecially noted by those who wish to era- 
dicate them; for the greater the number of winged females 
that can be then destroyed, the greater will be the decrease 
of their propagation, as every winged female that survives 
becomes the founder of a fresh colony, which readily ex- 
plains their abundant and wide distribution. The females 
are more than twice the size of these small neuters, being 
two lines long, and are larger than the males, and like them 
have four transparent wings. No trouble need be taken 
about the latter, as they speedily die—indeed, immediately 
upon the exercise of their exclusive function, 
The majority of exotic ants are extremely eccentric in 
structure and remarkably diverse in form; but these little 
aliens are conformable to a type common to these islands. 
They are congeneric with our own species of rhe section 
Diplorhoptrum, of the genus Myrmica, that section being 
without spines to the metathorax, a spined metathorax being 
the character of the more typical forms. The females and 
neuters are armed with stings; the club of the antennez 
has three joints, and the abdomen two nodes. The habits 
of our own species of this sub-divided genus differ very con- 
siderably from each other, therefore it would be perilous to 
jump at conclusions from one to the other. A prominent 
characteristic embracing all is that the pupz are naked ; 
namely, that they are not enclosed in cocoons. In illustra- 
