NOTES ON INDIAN ANTS. 41 



Beyond ;i pure love of a good scrimmage I can offer no suggestion 

 as to any reason or cause for this fight; gemminatus was wholly un- 

 offending, and compressus might have left the battle-field with colours 

 flying any time from 4-30 up to 8 p.m. I havo seen many instances 

 of eonipn'sstis' pugnacity when coming across other ants, or crossing 

 close to another nest, but never such a systematic determined affair 

 as the one described. I have this Hereward of ants in my collection 

 now, with a few odds and ends of the slain. I have examined a great 

 many nests of cdmpressus, but have never succeeded in finding in 

 them any other species of ants, Coleoptcra, Aphida?, or indeed insects 

 of any kind. 



MyvmecoajstH* viatica (Fabr.). 



Cataglyph is viatica. 



This ant is common in the North- West Provinces, Oudh, and the 

 Punjaub. I have also taken it in Tirhoot, but never in the Calcutta 

 district. It forms its nests in the hard-baked earth in the most 

 exposed situations, and seems to revel in the hot dry air and fierce 

 sun of these parts. You can always find plenty of nests in the broken 

 ground about Agra, and also in the pathways of the gardens at 

 Benares. The workers, which vary immensely in size, can be found 

 busy and active all the year round, but the sexes I have only obtained 

 in May. The workers have a strong propensity for marching about 

 in irregular lines of a dozen or twenty together ; they march at a 

 great pace, but I have never been able to detect any particular object 

 in these excursions, and have never seen them attacking other ants, 

 or bringing home any plunder. The workers-major, however, arc 

 very fond of carrying their smaller brethren when on the march, 

 which they do by striding over and holding them clear of the 

 ground with their mandibles ; if you disturb them the big worker 

 drops the little one, and each makes off on its own account, but if left 

 alone, and you watch quietly for a little time, you may see the big 

 ant pick up the little one and march on again in a great hurry, and 

 as if to make up for the delay. I have examined many of the nests 

 of this species, but never found any slave-ants or insects of any kind 

 in them. The big workers are powerful ants, but do not possess the 

 immense strength of the giant workers of the compressus, 

 6 



