APPENDIX. 65 



surface of the whole spot will be found covered over with little 

 ridges, the works of these creatures, and the few seeds that 

 perhaps remain, dug all round, and being carried off sometimes 

 above ground, at other times under ground. Their galleries 

 and subterranean passages are often very extensive, and it is 

 no easy matter to dig down to their nest to see what becomes 

 of the seeds." (Ecodoma diffusa has the same habits as 

 (E. providens. 



Lieut.-Col. Sykes, Descriptions of New Indian Ants in 

 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., i. 103 (1836). 



AttOj providens, Sykes. '' In illustration of the habits of 

 this species of ant, I shall give the following extract from my 

 diary: — 'Poena, June 19, 1829. In my morning walk I 

 observed more than a score of little heaps of grass-seeds 

 (Panicum) in several places on uncultivated land near the 

 parade-ground ; each heap contained about a handful. On 

 examination, I found they were raised by the above species 

 of ant, hundreds of which were employed in bringing up 

 the seeds to the surface from a store below ; the grain had 

 probably got wet at the setting in of the monsoon, and the 

 ants had taken advantage of the first sunn}'^ day to bring it 

 up to dry. The store must have been laid up from the time 

 of the ripening of the grass-seeds in January and February. 

 As I was aware this fact militated against the observations of 

 entomologists in Europe, I was careful not to deceive myself 

 by confounding the seeds of a Panicum with the pupae of the 

 insect. Each ant was charged with a single seed, but as it 

 was too weighty for many of them, and as the strongest had 

 some difficulty in scaling the perpendicular sides of the cylin- 

 drical hole leading to the nest below, many were the falls of 

 the weaker ants with their burdens from near the summit to 

 the bottom. I observed they never relaxed their hold, and 

 with a perseverance affording a useful lesson to humanity, 

 steadily recommenced the ascent after each successive tum- 

 ble, nor halted in their labour until they had crowned the 

 summit, and lodged their burden on the common heap.' " 



(p. lOi). " On the 13th of October of the same year, 

 after the closing thunderstorms of the monsoon, I found 

 this species in various places similarly employed as they 



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