NOTES ON INDIAN ANTS. 39 



its place seems to be taken by Myfmecocystm viaticM ; the two 

 species can be taken in the same locality, but as riaticus becomes 

 common, eompressns is seen less frequently ; Benares, Agra, and 

 Lahore are good illustrations of this. Compresms is very common in 

 Madras, and I have also taken it in Bombay. The nests are formed 

 in the earth at a depth of several inches, generally under the shelter 

 of trees, and are very populous. The sexes swarm in May or early 

 June, and take flight as soon as the sun goes down. Stray specimens 

 of the sexes, however, may be taken at light from the commencement 

 of the hot weather to the end of the rains (April to September). 

 The workers-major are very fierce and strong, and attack when 

 disturbed with the greatest courage ; if you allow them to fasten on 

 your hand they can draw blood with ease, their strong mandibles 

 cutting like a pair of nail scissors ; when once they got a good hold, 

 unless you unlock their jaws, they will leave their heads fixed in the 

 wound rather than loosen their bull-dog grip. 



It is amusing to watch the havoc these big workers will play with 

 the white ants (Termites) whenever they get the chance. Very 

 probably the trunk of the tree under which compressus has formed 

 its colony will be plastered with the covered ways of Termites ; take a 

 stick and uncover these, and compresms will immediately rush in and 

 carry off the soft helpless Termites to their nest ; but they never 

 have the sense or industry to open up any of these prolific finds for 

 themselves, even when the key or start is given them, although with 

 their immense strength they could very easily do so. 



It is a very common occurrence to find evidence of deadly family 

 feuds between these warriors, such as two lying dead, locked together, 

 and another walking about with a big head fixed to a leg or antenna : 

 but of many observations of a similar character, I will relate the 

 details of a particularly desperate fight that took place in the 

 verandah of my bungalow in Barrackpore between a worker-major 

 (not a very big specimen) and a nest of that pungently stinging ant, 

 Solenopsis gemminatus. One afternoon in May, 1880, at 4-30 p.m., 

 I noticed a worker of comptressus very busy skirmishing round a 

 column of the verandah, in which was a strong colony of Solenopsis ; 

 she contented herself for some time in cutting off and snipping in 

 two the stragglers from the nest, but by-and-bye she became bolder, 



