254 w - M - WHEELER. 



edible parts. L. elongata is, to my knowledge, the only ant 

 known to feed on crustaceans as a regular diet. Other ants are 

 either insectivorous, granivorous, mycetophagous, or collectors 

 of the saccharine exudations or juices of insects and plants. 



The little that is known concerning the habits of other species 

 of Lcptogenys would indicate that the North American form 

 is peculiar in the character of its food. Wroughton has studied 

 the habits of two of the Indian species of Lobopclta, L. dis- 

 tinguenda Emery and L. cliiucnsis Mayr. 1 Concerning the for- 

 mer he writes as follows : "This species is fairly common from 

 Poona westwards to the Ghats. The idea of a disciplined army 

 has been fairly developed in this genus. L. distingnenda may 

 sometimes, it is true, be found loafing about singly, but these 

 individuals are probably only scouts ; ordinarily, she is only met, 

 in the early morning or late in the afternoon, travelling in an un- 

 broken column four to six or eight abreast, straight, or rather by 

 the easiest road, to the scene of operations. This is usually a 

 colony of white ants whose galleries have been broken open by 

 the hoof of a passing beast, or some similar accident. Arrived 

 at destination, each worker seizes her termite prey, tucks it 

 under her thorax in the orthodox ponerine fashion, and the 

 column then returns (but marching ' at ease ' and much less 

 regularly than on the outward journey) to the nest. I have never 

 succeeded in finding a nest ; on one occasion I tracked a column 

 for more than fifty paces, only to lose it in a patch of prickly 

 pear. I do not think that L. distingnenda, any more than any 

 other ant, ever has the inspiration to open a termite gallery for 

 herself; on the occasion mentioned above, the column passed 

 close to several, and even over one colony of white ants before 

 reaching its destination ; I believe, however, I saw a worker 

 break open a piece of tunnel, into which a termite had retreated, 

 but cannot be sure, and the practice certainly was not general. 

 Nor are the termites followed into the galleries, partly, perhaps, 

 because the passage is too small for a Lobopclta, but equally, I 

 imagine, because such a measure would be very like ' drawing ' a 

 badger ' only more so.' Mr. Aitken tells me he has seen ' hun- 

 dreds going into a hole in the ground and emerging with white 

 ants,' but this is very different from entering a termite gallery." 



1 "Our Ants," Journ. Bombay Nat. ffisf. Soc., 1892, p. 56-58. 



