362 ants' nests. 



in its natural position on the bough where the ants had placed it. 

 It can be seen how the small branches and leaves of the tree, 

 glued together with pasteboard, are incorporated into the nest, 

 and how the main bough serves as an axle to support the structure. 

 It can be further seen how the labyrinth, constructed of paste- 

 board, is built more or less concentrically around the bough. 



Some species of the genera Camponotus {C. cha?iifex, Smith, 

 t7-aili, Mayr, fabrtcii, Roger, etc,), in South America, and Polyr- 

 hachis, in the East Indies, manufacture a very similar pasteboard. 

 Fig. 4 represents a nest of Polyrhachis mayri^ Roger, of Ceylon. 

 The whole nest of most of the species of Polyrhachis consists of a 

 single cavity of the size of a walnut or of a hen's egg, while the 

 nests of other ants are, for the greater part, divided into chambers 

 and passages. The egg-shaped nest of Polyrhachis mayri, which 

 I received from Major Yerbury, of Ceylon, through Mr. Wroughton, 

 stands simply, like the cocoon of the silk-worm, on a leaf. The 

 pasteboard of which it is composed resembles that of a Cremasto- 

 gaster nest, but is very weak and fragile, being made of vegetable 

 particles slightly glued together with gland cement. A silk thread 

 has never yet been discovered in any of them. The cement is in 

 the form of yellow or brownish flakes and crosspieces, precisely 

 like that of Dolichoderus bispinosus (Fig. i8, the coloured parts), 

 while the vegetable matter is entirely compact (without meshes) 

 and more finely dismembered, though still recognisable in its 

 structure (not pulverised) ; the walls of the nest are about half 

 a millimetre thick. 



Polyrhachis scissa, Roger, of Ceylon, builds its nest of exactly 

 the same materials ; but it is irregularly formed, and is attached to 

 leaves rolled around galls, the crevices of which are closed with 

 paste. 



I have received similar pasteboard nests of Dolichoderus graci- 

 lipes, Mayr, and of a species of Cremastogaster fixed upon leaves, 

 from Ceylon, through Major Yerbury. 



The nest of the Polyrhachis jcrdo7iii^^'' Forel, which I received 



* Polyrhachis jerdonii (workers), n. sp. 4^ millimetres in length, short and 

 broad ; related to the Polyrhachis argentea, Mayr, but still shorter, without 

 silvery down, with a much less arched thorax sharply edged at the side, the 

 abdomen sharply edged in front, with red mandibles, antenna, and legs (except 



