682 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



Another species is the large black ant, Camponotus compressus 

 (Fig. 82), which constructs its nest in the ground. This ant attacks 

 other ants and is also to be found 

 in attendance sucking up the 

 sweet escrotions of blights 

 (Aphidce) and scale insects 

 (Coccidoe). Although plentiful 

 where it occurs it is but locally Fig. 82.— Camponotus compretsus. (India.) 

 distributed throughout the country. 



Amongst the Myrmicides may be noticed a large fierce insectivorous 

 iint, Sima rufonigra, called the sepoy-ant (Fig. 83) in Madras from its 



colouration, it having 

 a red thorax and 

 black head and body. 

 It makes its nests in 

 dead wood and is 

 often found in old 

 FlG. 83 — Sima rufonigra. The sepoy-ant. QCoimbatore.) Ion gicorn beetle bor- 

 ings in sandalwood in Ooimbatore and Mysore. Its sting is exceedingly 

 painful. It is equally common in the north of India. Bingham ^writes 

 as follows on this ant : — ' S. rufonigra makes its nests in the dead wood 

 of trees, and very often, in Burma at least, in the clefts of the beams 

 and posts of the wooden rest-houses scattered over the country. Person- 

 ally, I opened and examined only one nest, and that was in a hollow in 

 a. Pyinkado tree. The hollow was low down in the tree, and the 

 entrance or entrances, for there were several, were quite at the base of 

 the tree.' This ant at times fights most fiercely with the red ant 

 ( (Ecophylla) described above. 



The common red ant of the plains of India, Solenopsis geminata, 

 (Fig. 84) lives in large colonies 

 in nests in the ground, under 

 stones, &g. It constructs par- 

 tially covered ways across roads 

 and is often to be seen carrying 

 off dead insects. It has been re- 

 ported as attacking potatoes and 

 1 & l FIG. 84. — Solenopsis gem%nata, (India.) 



may do damage in nurseries. 



* Bingham. Blanf . Faun. Br. Ind., Hymenoptera, Vol. 11. 109. 



