2 4 2 



. IXTS. 



'This species is fairly common from 1'oona westward to the Ghats. 

 1 lie idea of a disciplined army has been fairly developed in this genus. 

 L. distinguenda may Munetimes, it is true, be found loafing about singly, 

 but these individuals are probably only scouts; ordinarily, she is met. 

 in the early morning < >r late in the afternoon, travelling in an unbroken 

 column four to >ix 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 their destination each 

 worker seizes her termite prey, tucks it under her thorax in the ortho- 

 dox ponerine fashion, and the column then returns (but marching 'at 

 ease' and much less regularly than on the outward journey) to the 

 nest." Uingham (1903) confirms Wroughton's observations on the 

 termitophagous habits of Lobopclta and its methods of foraging in 

 files. He says that " L. chincnsis, L. binnanq and L. kitclli seem 

 always to march in columns of four; while L. binghami and L. aspera 

 I have only seen in single or double file, and very often singly, wander- 

 ing about foraging like Diacain- 

 ina." Dahl (1901) also has seen 

 a troop of about fifty Lobopclta 

 bismarckensis workers marching 

 in file in the Bismarck Archipel- 

 ago, and Dinoponcra f/randis of 

 Brazil, the largest of all Ponerine 

 ants, is described by Bates (1892) 

 as " marching in single file 

 through the thickets." These ob- 

 servations are of unusual interest 

 because they are suggestive of the 

 concerted forays of the Dorylinze 

 and slave-making Polyergus and 

 Formica sanguined. 

 The ants of the genus Leptogenys ( including the subgenus Lobo- 

 pclta ) are also interesting in another respect. The Texan L. clongata 

 has no winged females, but instead a single gynaecoid worker usurps 

 this role in each colony. This individual is indistinguishable from the 

 workers except for the more rounded petiolar node and more volumi- 

 nous gaster. As the difference in the petiole is not always constant the 

 question arises as to whether the gynrecoids are not merely workers 

 that have assumed the reproductive role. Conclusive evidence in 

 favor of this supposition has been furnished by my former pupil, 

 Miss M. ITolliday (1903), who found the gynaecoids to possess a well- 



a 



FIG. 139. Melissotarsus bcccarii of 

 the Sudan. (Emery.) a. Soldier; b, 

 head of worker ; c, antenna. 



