Sirex gigas in UlsterAuthor(s): Chas. ElcockSource: The Irish Naturalist, Vol. 7, No. 10 (Oct., 1898), p. 254Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25521483 .

Accessed: 10/06/2014 17:10

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The IrishNaturalist.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.229 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 17:10:44 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

254 The Irish Naturalist. [October,

ZOOLOGY.

INSECTS.

Strex gigas In Ulster.

I received on the ioth September a very fine specimen of this large

Saw-fly which had been caught at Florida, Co. Down. I have also

received a specimen from Ormeau Park; and another from near

Ballymena. "Very common the last three or four years at the last

place, but not seen there previously "-so the farmer said who brought it.

City Museum, Belfast. CHAS. ELCOCK.

Nyssla zonarla In Co. Antrim.

Referring to Mr. Kane's interesting remarks regarding this species

(pp. I35-6 of this volume), it was Mr. Milne, not I, who first found the

larvae at Ballycastle, in June, 1893.

Londonderry. D. C. CAMPBULL.

A Plague of Ants.

On Sunday, August 14, oil approaching Blessington from the east,

ininlense nlumubers of winged ants were observed, flying, or crawling on

the grass and roads. They became miore abundant on nearing the

village, and I roughly estimated that on the half-mile of road adjoining

the village over a million and a half of ants were crawling, while in the

air above the road they were so abundant that my clothes were quite

brown with them. The fields on each side were thick with them, the

windows of the hotel were alive with thenm, anid my tea was richly

flavoured with them. Uniless they were confined to a narrow line down

which I had the fortune (?) to walk, there must have been hundreds of

millions of them within a mile of Blessington. Whence came such a

vast host of ants ? Can our Hymenopterists explain ? The ants were

all of the one species-a commotn small brown ant.

Dublin. R. LLOYD PRAEGER.

All the species of ants occurring in this countrv, when the weather is

favourable, swarm in August. Froml the description these insects may

have been the common Bank Ant, Lashes flaves, De G., or some of the

commonly distributed races of the Red Ant, Myrmica rzibra, 14., most

probably the latter. I met with immense swartms of both these species

about the middle of last month on the shores of the Lower Shannon,

and also about Tralee. I895 was the last year in which I noticed the

same abundance.

Blackrock, Co. Dublin H. G. CUHBERRT.

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.229 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 17:10:44 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions