COLLECTED IN EOKNEO, ETC. 59 



one, P. nidificans, he says, " This Ant makes a small nest about 

 half an inch or rather more in diameter, of some papyraceous 

 material, which it fixes on a leaf; I have opened two, each of 

 which contained one female and eight or ten workers. It is very 

 rare ; I have only seen it in Malabar." What can be the use of 

 the formidable spines and hooks with which these creatures are 

 armed, it is impossible to determine ; on examination we find, as 

 might be expected in species living on trees, and probably all 

 have the same habit, that the legs are destitute of spines, and 

 usually of pubescence also ; the calcaria at the apex of the tibiae 

 are very short, and the tips of the tarsal joints have very short 

 spines and hairs. 



The Polyrhachis textor, described in these papers, was captured 

 with its nest, and was sent from Malacca by Mr. Wallace ; the 

 nest is nearly oval, not quite an inch in length, its shortest dia- 

 meter being a little over half an inch ; this nest is not of a papy- 

 raceous texture, but fibrous, formed, as it were, of a coarse net- 

 work ; the colonies must consequently be very small, as Mr. Jer- 

 don says, consisting of only eight or ten individuals ; but proba- 

 bly at the height of the season, when the males appear, the nests 

 may be somewhat enlarged, as we know to be the case amongst 

 the social Wasps. 



Although these insects are usually rare, or at least seldom met 

 with in collections, Mr. Wallace has captured no less than nine- 

 teen species in the East : from the New World I have only seen 

 one or two, about four from Africa, and the same number from 

 Australia. 



1. POLYRHACHIS BIHAMATUS, Drury, IflS. U. pi. 38. f. 8 ?. 



P. thorace quadrispinoso, squama petiolari spinis duabus arcuatis. 

 Hab. Borneo. India. Sumatra. 



2. Polyrhachis relucens. 



Formica relucens, Latr. Hist. Nat. Fourm. p. 131. 

 Hab. Borneo (Sarawak). India. 



3. Polyrhachis carinatus. 



Formica carinata, Fabr. Syst. Piez. 413. 71 ; St. Farg. Hym. i. 220. 28; 



Jerdon, Madras Journ. Lit. fy Sc. (1851). 

 Hab. Malacca. Singapore. 



4. Polyrhachis defensus. P. niger ; capite thoraceque minute 

 verrucatis, thorace spinis duabus longis antice, duabus postiee, armato ; 

 abdomine opaco ferrugineo-rufo. 



Worker. Length 3a lines. Head and thorax black, and coarsely sha- 



