130 NOTES UPON THE FORMICID^E OF MACKAY, 



the savage little green tree ant, (Ecophylla smaragdina, Fab., var. 

 virescens, Fab., which attacks everything that comes in its way. 



These ants build nests by drawing the leaves together with a 

 web, forming the tip of a branch into an irregular rounded mass 

 often over a foot in diameter and partitioned off into irregular 

 cells or chambers among the enclosed leaves. These nests are 

 constructed in the tops of the smaller scrub trees or undei'growth^ 

 and might at first sight be taken for immense spider nests. They 

 swarm with ants, and it is a common incident when pushing one's 

 way through the creepers to tear one of their nests and have a 

 swarm of these savage little creatures come tumbling down on 

 one's head, and where an ant falls he hangs on with his long 

 sharp jaws, and each has to be picked off before one is rid of 

 them. They range from Mackay to the New Guinea scrubs, if 

 not further,* and are the pirates of the tropical scrubs, destroying 

 an immense number of insects. The wild bees forming "honey 

 bags " in the tree trunks protect the entrance to their nests with 

 a funnel-like rim of propolis to keep them out; but if this rim 

 gets damaged the cunning little ants will crawl upon the broken 

 ■edge and pick off each bee as it comes out; and it is wonderful 

 that any insects live in scrub in which the ants are so numerous. 



So far as my knowledge at present extends, about twenty 

 species are confined to the scrub, though only twelve of these can 

 be said to be strictly scrub species; the others having been found 

 so rarely as to make it a matter of doubt whether with extended 

 I'esearch they might not occur also in the forest. Although the 

 line of demarcation between the forest and scrub is nearly always 

 sharply defined, j^et this is not always the case with the range of 

 the difierent species of ants ; GLcopliylla smaragdina even 

 occasionally encroaching but never very far, into the forest country, 

 while there is one forest ant frequently ranging a short distance 

 into the scrub. This naturally makes it difficult to determine to 

 which class of countr}' a species belongs when it is rare and only 

 found at the junction of the scrub and forest. 



* The typical (E. smaragdina fouud in India is of a yellow colour. Other 

 species are fouud in Africa. 



