82 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



It is not necessary to tell the members of this learned Society 

 thrvt the ants are social, living together in large communities. Each 

 community consists of females or queens, males, and workers 

 (which are undeveloped females). In some species there is a fourth 

 class, viz., the soldiers, which, like the workers, are modified females. 

 The female ants have got the name of queens, I imagine, from the 

 analogy of the bees. In an ants' nest, however, there are a number 

 of queens, and from the researches of Sir J. Lubbock and others, 

 it appears that ants have not acquired the art of " manufacturing ; * 

 queens at pleasure, as the bees are known to do. An ant community 

 consists principally of workers with, in some species, a proportion 

 of soldiers. Certainly in some species, and probably in all, however, 

 there are seasons of the year when there are queens, while, as far 

 as 1 know, in all species the males are found in the nest only just 

 before the nuptial flight, from which they do not return. The 

 queens and males are at first winged, but at the conclusion of the 

 nuptial flight the queens lose their wings. I have seen it stated 

 that the queen having lost her wings wanders about until she is 

 found by workers of her species, who take charge of her and com- 

 mence the building up of a new community. It may be so with 

 some species, but Sir. J. Lubbock's experiments give little support 

 to this theory, and I have more than once found a queen of 

 Camponotus callidus unattended by workers and brooding over a 

 small number of pupa?, no doubt the product of eggs laid by her 

 and the germ of h new community. 



We commence the next group of the Acidoata with the Mutillidce. 

 They are often called "solitary ants," from supposed resemblance 

 in the shape of the female to a huge ant. The female mutilla is 

 wingless, ordinarily covered with down, and usually gorgeously 

 coloured with rings and spots of gold, silver, or crimson on a brown 

 or black ground. The male on the other hand is usually dull coloured, 

 and is winged. A very great number of species have been 

 described and named, but in a very great majority of cases only the 

 male or the female of each species is known, aud there is no doubt 

 that with further investigation nearly half these species must be 

 merged iu the other half. Very little seems to be known of the life 

 history of mutilla. The general opinion seems to he that the female 

 makes burrows in sandy soil, provisioning her nest with flies. I feel 

 certain and hope shortly to have convincing proof that some at least 

 of our Mutillidce are parasitic, nut by ineaus of lurking house-tres- 



