british ants

491 Pages·2013·14.08 MB·English

BRITISH ANTS
THEIR LIFE-HI~TORY AND CLASSIFICATION
BY ~ \
H. ST. J. K. DONISTHORPE, F.Z ..~ ~~~~~\:~
With 18 Plates and 93 Diagrams
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LIMITED
BR.OADWAY HOUSE: 68-74 CARTER LANE, KC.
1927
BRITISH ANTS
- ~ ~~ " \\ u_3.
F'1'
(b~3
• Printed in Great Britain at
The Mayflower Press, Plymouth, William Brendon & Son, Ltd,
DEDICATED
AS A TOKEN OF ESTEEM
AND FRIENDSHIP
TO
WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER
PH.D., PROFESSOR OF EdoNolllIC ENTOMOLOGY
HARVARD UNlVEltSITY, U.S.A.
•
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
WHEN the first edition of this book was written I did not~tiCiPate
that in ten yea.rs' time a second edition would be requ .
R~lizing, however, that the copies were nearly e " 81 sted I
decided to accept MessrS. Routledge's offer to prepare a econd
edition -bringing the work up to date, and also to write a ew book
devot;ed exclusively to the British Myrmecophilous fauna.\
T~ former is now, complete; the latter I hope to acco~lish in
the dot distant future. \
The study of ants has made considerable progress duriJ;tg the
last ten years, and many important 'memoirs and books hav\ been
published-some of them to be briefly referred to below. . \
The increase in our knowledge of the distribution of the B~.is h
Fotmicidae has been disappoij_ting. Entomologists often do ot
appear to realize that for the purposes of a local list the common, at
species are quite as necessary as the rarest. If the reader will kindly
note from the information supplied in this book, the counties aIill.
vice-counties from which our commonest ants have never been,
recorded, and as opportunity offers will make a point of searching
and of ma.king his observations available, our knowledge of the
distribution of British a.nts would soon be greatly increased. In the
meantime I desire to thank Messrs. Britten,.Butterfield, Hallett,
Harwood, Hodson, Joy, Keys, C. Nicholson, Perkins, Phillips,
Saunt, Stelfox, S. O. Ta.ylor, and Waterston for kindly sending me
ante} to determine, and information concerning their occurrence
in Britain.
Since the first edition of "British Ants" was published two
new species have been discovered-Myrmica se'hencki Emery, by
Mr. 'lI. M. Hallett, and AcanthomyopB (Donisthorpea) brunneus
Latr., by Dr. N. H. Joy; also two new varieties are added-Ponera
Ill'll,nctatissima var. exada Santa., due to Dr. F. Santschi; and
r:anthomyops (Ohthonolasiua), umhratus Nyl. var. aflino-umhratus
br. nov., by myself.
Among recent works which the student of Myrmecology will find
viii PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
essential I place first, Chapterij IV and V in W. M. Wheeler's
"Social Life among the Insects" (1923) .• It is truly remlU"kable
that the author should have been able to compress into this limited
space such a store of information on nearly every subject connected
with ants. Also' his great work on " The Ants of the :Relgian Congo"
(1921-22), consisting of over 1000 pages and containing a .key to all
the genera. of the ants of the world, should be consulted by all
myrmecologists. The same author's" Ants of the Baltic Ambm-"
(1914). is also a most useful and instructive work; and to those
who are interested in the geological history of ants, attention ma.y
be directed to papers by Prof. Cockerell and myself on the British
fossil ants, of which the titles will be found in the Bibliography
at the end of this volume. •
Emery, whose death on May 11th, 1925, leaves a void which can
never be filled in the ranks of myrmecologists, had, fortunately for
science, completed his great work in the « Genera Insectorum,"
1901-25. Among his recent papers must be mentioned also a
valuable memoir on the ants of Italy published in 1916. During
his life he wrote some 295 publications on ants; not only was he a
myrmecologist of the highest eminence, but also a just and generous
man, who always gave full credit to others for their work.
Forel in 1915 republished the taxonomic part of his "Fourmis
de la Suisse," bringing the synonymy up to date; and in 1923 he
completed the five volumes of "Le Monde Social des Fourmis "
of which an English translation will shortly appear. This, although
in many ways a fine work, is somewhat disappointing in that it is
not up to date, and that the opportunity has been made for airing
the author's socialistic views. I should wish in particular to
protest against the ~ts being employed as a supposed weapon in
political controversy. In my opinion an entomological work is
not the appropriate means for the introduction of political theories
of any kind, still less for their glaring a.dvertisement. Let those,
however, who are so ready to set forth'the social life of ants as a
lesson to human beings, and an argument favouring a socialistic
community, reflect on the following fa.cts :-To all intents and
purposes the working classes of ants are sterile! They have no
trade union rules; each worker does as much work as she can from
. early morn to dewy eve, and often during the hours of the night
as well, All are willing to sacrifice their lives at a moment's notice
• for the good of the state, and are ever industrious and contented.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION ix
leveloped heads in order to contain the powerful muscles of the
aws with which they ,crush "the hard seeds reqUired for food;
,ut when these workers are no longer needed by the colony, the
ither ants cut off their heads and throw them on the refuse heap.
rhis is a very' drastic, but effective, method of getting rid of a
uperfluous working class .
. Wasmann,. whose interesting papers on ants and myrmecophiles
lumber up to the present date some 250, published in 1925 a
'aluable work on ant mimicry, which is 'indispensable for those
Ilterested in that subject. Schmitz, in 1916, ~ote an interesting
.ccou1J.t of the Ants and Myrmecophiles of Holla ij; and Bondroit,
11 1918, a book on the Ants of France and Bel ~. The value of
he latt~r is lessened, however, by the unnecess rJl multiplication
If species, and the creation of many on the poore of characters.
The attention of those interested in the M~'eCOIOgy of other
ontinents is directed to the following public tions--Arnold's
ompletion of his monograph on ·the ants of South . rica, 1915-25 ;
he papers on Australian ants, by Clark, Crawley, :.and Wheeler;
un ants of Africa, South America, etc., by Santschi \ and on ants
and myrmecopbiles in the Argenthle, etc., by Bruch. \
At the end of, the novel "The Ants of Timothy T~iimmel," by
A. Ferenczy (1924), w:41 be found some sixty pages of ~tes on the
social life of ants, compiled with the assistance of Mis Cheesman
and myself. .
Finally, mention may be made of the chapter written\ by me in
"The Life-Work of Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock)," 1924, edited
by his daughter, The Hon. Mrs. Adrian Grant Duff.
I wish to express my best thanks to Mr. C. K. Ogden to whose
good offices the publication of this edition is due; to Miss\F. J.
Kirk for compiling the Bibliography and the Index, and for hltIp in
other ways; to Mr. Engel Terzi for translations from the Ita~n ;
and to Professor E. B. Poulton for kind help and encouragement
with the revision, etc.
HORACE DONISTHORPE.
J 'Une 30th, 1926.
CONTENTS
\\
. PAGE
ZFAOE vii
,
l'BODUOT,ORY \: 3
~RNAL STRUCTURE 3
hE HlIlAD . 3
hE THORAX r 7
\
THE WINGS. \. 9
.\
THE ABDOMEN , , 9
.
THE GENITALIA I, \, 13
17
!l'Ji:&l\TAL STRFCTV'RE
'\
bE GLANDS 19
\
GLANDS IN THE HEAD 19
, THORACIC GLANDS 19
ABDOMINAL GLANDS. 20
B»PRODUCTIVE ORGANS 22
THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM .\ 25
THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM .~5
THE,MusOULAR SY;STEM' . 5
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 26"
[FE HISTORY • 26
PRoPAGATION 26
CoLONY FOUNDING 27
METAMORPHOSIS 29
PARTHENOGENESIS 30
LARVAE 30
PuPAE' 33
.
POLYMORPHISM 34
5YOHOLOGY • 44
HoW' ,ANTS KNow EAOH OTHER 48
•
CONTENTS
PAGK
How ANTS COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER 48
•
How ANTS FIND THEIR WAY 49
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRmUTION 52
GEOLOGICAL RECORD • 53
55
COLLECTING
MOUNTING AND PRESERVINU • 57
OBSERVATION -NESTS 58
:t
INDIGENOUS GENERA AND SPECIES
PONEIUNAE
67
PONEBA
77
MYBMIOINAE.
79
MYBMEOINA •
FOBMICOXENUS 88
95
ANEBGATES
102
MONOMORzUM
109
80LENOPSIS
MYRMIOA 115
152
8TENAMMA
161
LEPTOTHOBAX
189
TETRAMORIUM
199
DOLIOHODERIN AE
199
TAPINOMA
205
FORMIOINAE •
206
ACANTHOMYOPS
281
FORMICA
COSMOPOLITAN AND INTRODUCED SPECIES • 384
385
PONEIUNAE
387
MYRMICINAE.
394
DOLIOHODEIUNA E
396
FOBMICINAE •
407
BmLIOGRAPHY •
429
SYSTEMATIC INDEX: ANTS AND MYRMECOPHTLES
LI~T OF IL~~STRATIONS
PLATES SEPAR~~~LY PRINTED
PJ!IA.B , \ FACING PAGE
I. Eggs, larvae, and pupae of Po~ra coarriata, Myrmecina gramini-
,-_- cola, Solenop8is fugax, and M~mica ruginodis • . . 30
II. . Eggs, larVae: and pupae of nergate8 atratulu8, Monomorium
pharaoni8, Leptothorax inteTTu tus, and Tetramorium caespitum 32
(II. Eggs, larvae, and pupae of TaPlnoma erraticum, Acanthomyop8
• niger, and Formica rufa . ~ . . . . . • 34
IV. Ergatan~ron1orph. of Formica ru arbis, and Gynandromorph of
Formtca 8angUtnea . - ',' . . _ . • 42
V., Male, female, and worker of Ponei'f! coarctata, P. punctatissima,
I
and Myrmecinagraminicola. ' 82
VI. Male and female of Anergate8 atratiljlu8, and male, female, and
worker of Formicoxenu8 nitidul1l8 ~d Monomorium pharaoni8. 98
rn.
Male, female, and worker of SolenopBi,s fugax and Myrmica Bul-
cinodi8 ' \ ,- 114
[II. Male, female, and worker of Leptothorax interruptu8, L. acervorum,
and Stenamma westwoodi' 160
tx. Male, female, and worker of Tetramorium caeapitum and Tapinoma
eTTaticum \ 198
X. Male, female, and worker of Acanthomyop8fuJ.tgino8Us and A. alienus 206
XI. Carton nest of Acanthomyop8fuliginosu8 and ~lUndB of A. flat"l!8 . 216
:;11. Nest of Acanthomyop$ umbratu8 266
[11_ Nests of Formica rufa . " 290
IV. Nests of Formica TUfa v. alpina and F. praten8i8 . 308
(V. ·Male, female, and worker of Formica pratensis 310
VI. Nests of Formica pratensis and F. ex8ecto 318
rn.
Male, female, and worker of Formica rufibarbis 370
[II. Nests of Formica exsecta and F. picea . 382
FIGURES PRINTED IN THE TEXT
-WOrker of FQl'miea praIe1ui8 • PAGE2
UnderVde_ of bead of Formiea pratenBi8 ljj 4
Mandible of hrmiea ~ !.! 5
Maxilla. of Formiea praUnBi8 ~ 5
Labium of Formiea pratenBi8 _~ 6
~hora.x of Strt1Jlogna,tiU8 adMopiCUB S 7