104 SPOLTA ZEYLANICA. 



These colonies of A7i. cyclo2)s were dispersed over the whole 

 mound, inliabiting small flat chambers, which were crowded 

 with workers, larvae, and nymphs. 



Twice I succeeded in capturing the queens. In one instance 

 I took a queen in a mound of redemanni ; but I found as many 

 as five queens and one king in a single obscuriceps mound. 

 As the queen cell is in no way distinguished, either by its 

 structure or its position, it is just by chance that one finds 

 them. I found them concealed in ordinary tunnels, not 

 crowded together, but at some distance apart. When 

 opening the mound it is very easy to cut away a piece contain- 

 ing the queen or queens ; and they can be easily damaged, 

 as was the case with one of those taken by me. I cannot, 

 therefore, be certain whether there were any more queens or 

 kings in these colonies. The queens did not differ very much 

 from the winged adults. Some of them had the abdomen 

 slightly inflated, so that the intersegmental membrane was 

 somewhat extended ; others had just the appearance of the 

 winged form — after it has shed its wings. 



When captured, the workers always lifted up their abdomens 

 after the manner of ants — Cremastogaster for instance — so that 

 the anal part came right above the head, excreting at the 

 same time a drop from the anal opening. This drop consists 

 of a thick liquid of a brownish-gray colour, and is composed 

 of minute vegetable and mineral particles agglutinated by 

 some secretion. When excreting this drop — which, by the 

 way, is not viscid and leaves no stain on the skin — the worker 

 of An. cydops does not empty the whole of the contents of 

 the gut. When a worker is immersed in M^ater or alcohol 

 this material is evacuated in the form of a minute sausage 

 from 6 to 7 mm. in length and of a diameter of about 0" 5 mm. 

 In water it loses its original shape in the course of a few 

 minutes, becoming a small heap of earthy matter ; whereas 

 in alcohol it retains its original appearance and becomes hard 

 and brittle. 



EUTERMES RUBIDUS, Hag. 



I had an opportunity of watching this species rather 

 frequently, as there was a nest right in front of the entrance of 

 the resthouse at Peradeniya. Every morning little piles of 



