766 [Assembly 
Latr.) which excavates its burrows in the trunks of old and 
decaying trees, in which it is sometimes met with in countless 
numbers. And I am not without suspicions this may be a variety 
of that species rendered darker in its colors by being more ex¬ 
posed to the light and air. It is much darker colored than the 
species alluded to, its thorax being deep chestnut red, and its legs 
black, with the thighs tinged with chestnut red, but always 
daikei than the thorax, instead of being of the same color as we 
generally find them in F. herculeana. These and other differences 
to be specified appear to be constant, occurring in all the speci¬ 
mens which I find attending the aphides of the apple and other 
trees, and induce me to regard it as a distinct species, which I 
propose to distinguish under the Dame of 
The New-Yobk Ant (Formica Novceboracensis). The neuters are uniformly 
about 0.30 long. The body and legs, as in F. herculeana are covered with very 
short fine appressed hairs, which on the head and body are interspersed with a few 
longer erect bristles, whereof several are clustered upon the elevated posterior part 
of the thorax, others stand out from the edge of the wedge like scale at the base of 
the abdomen like eye-lashes, and others are arranged in transverse rows upon the 
abdomen, of which there is one upon each side of each suture. The scale at the 
base of the abdomen, instead of being the same red or yellow color as the thorax, or 
only somewhat dusky at its summit, is here black, with its base only sometimes dark 
red. The posterior face of this scale in F. herculeana has a broad shallow concavity, 
like the hollow of the hand, whilst here it is merely flattened, or in some instances 
has a small concavity in its middle. In the preserved specimen, the edges of the 
abdominal segments, especially the basal one, are often membranous and of a pale 
dull yellow color; and a variety occurs in which the anterior suture is impressed or 
constricted. 
In addition to ants, different kinds of wasps are common, 
hovering about the foliage of trees infested with plant-lice. Most 
of these appear to be attracted to them on the same errand with 
the ants, namely, to regale themselves upon the honey-dew, with¬ 
out molesting them further than to obtain this fluid. Thus I 
have observed our common Blue wasp, (Pelopceus cceruleus , Lin- 
nseus) the base of whose abdomen is contracted into a long slen¬ 
der penduncle, standing beside a colony of lice, and turning its 
head from side to side, gently touching their backs with its anten¬ 
nae, hereby tickling and causing them to eject their honey dew, 
and their mouths following in the track of the antennae, sipping 
up this fluid. Our common hornet or “yellow jacket” (Vespa 
