194 Mr. Shuckard's Monograph of the Dorylidae, 



posed that disturbing a nest of Ants for the sake of examining its 

 contents, even if it have ever been thought of within the tropics, is 

 there the same slight matter that it is here, and that it may be exe- 

 cuted with the same impunity. The colonies of these insects in hot 

 climates are very populous, and their sting much more venomous 

 than here, the poison increasing in intensity with the degree of heat ; 

 besides which, the collectors in those climates are either natives or 

 negroes, who would be contented with what chance might throw in 

 their way, without exposing themselves to the possibility of a con- 

 flict with such redoubtable opponents as a colony of Ants. 



I am prepared, in pursuit of the above conjecture, to show a con- 

 siderable degree of resemblance, as I said just now, in many points 

 of analogy between Ponera and the Dorylidce, I possess a male of 

 the former from Western Africa, which in its minute head, large 

 ocelli, elongate cylindrical body, and node of the abdomen, very much 

 resembles a Dorylus, and in the neuration of its wings it is a close 

 approximation to Labidus; but notwithstanding these particulars it 

 is but an analogy, for the trophi are totally dissimilar, and there it is 

 a genuine Ant. I have just now stated the female which I have so 

 often alluded to is blind, and this is the case in the spfecies of Po- 

 nera that occurs in this country, the only European species of the ge- 

 nus ; and besides which this remarkable little female has three mi- 

 nute spines at the apex of the abdomen, a character found in the 

 Ponera crassinoda from Demerara, but which occurs, as far as I have 

 had the opportunity of examining, in no other female of any hyme- 

 nopterous genus. In Labidus also the calcar of the four posterior 

 legs is dilated at its base and acuminated at the apex, a character 

 found in one of each of the calcaria of the four posterior legs of 

 Ponera ; these I consider all strong analogical circumstances. In 

 conclusion I would observe that I think it extremely probable that 

 these females are of very voracious habits, for the perfect one I pos- 

 sess has within its mandibles a portion of the wing of apparently a 

 Termes* ; and the second species, of which I have only the head, is 

 attached by the mandible to the thigh of a large Formica, an insect 

 six times its size. I willingly allow that an important portion of the 

 whole of this argument wants direct confirmation as far as regards 

 what I consider may be the female Labidus, for although the points 

 of resemblance which I shall below show are many and strong, yet 

 are they only conjectural : but how shall it be proved or disproved. 



* I once thought it possible that they might be parasitical upon this ge- 

 nus, but I speedily discarded this idea as merely a vague hypothesis. 



