110 FOEMICIDiE. 



lu the paper noted above, Mr. Eothney gives a most iuterestiug 

 account of a light between a column ot (Ecophylla smaragdina, 

 Fabr. (p. 354), the fierce leal-building red or yellow ant, and a 

 colony of /S'. rnfonif/ra. The account is too long to quote here, 

 but after several assaults by CEcuiiJajlIa smarcafdina, whose mode of 

 attack apparently was to advance in a ti-iangular wedge-shaped 

 formation, the apex towards the enemy, 8. rufonu/ra finally 

 trium]ilied, and was left in peaceable possession of its nest. 

 In tlie N.W. Provinces I have heard this ant called " lohari," or 

 blacksmith, why I cannot say. So fierce an insect is almost certain 

 to be mimicked, and consequently nearly every nest of >S. rufonigra 

 has a few mimicking spiders {M ij rmaraclme ])rovidens^Vec^) Vihowt . 

 In these the resemblance to the ant is remarkable ; but what 

 is, in my opinion, a far better mimic, at any rate of the $ ^ima 

 vitfoiiif/ra, is the beautiful wasp Ampidex constancur, discovered by 

 Mr. Eothnev, and named and described bv jNlr. Cameron (]Mem. 

 Manch. L. Ph. .Soc. (4) iv, 1891, p. 102, pl.'i, fig. 6). 



128. Sima nigra, Jcrdon (Ecitou), 3Jadr. Jour. L. S. xvii (1851), 

 p. lli>, ^ ; id. A. M. N. 11. ser. 2, xiii (1854), p. 53, ^ . 



Tetraponeia atrata, Smith, A. M. N. H. ser. -2, ix (1852), p. 44. 



Pseudomyrma carboiiaria, Smith, Jour. Liiui. Soc. vii (1863), 

 p. 20, 2 9. 



^ . Black ; the mandibk s, antennae and legs dark castaneous 

 brown, with scattered erect brownish hairs, and a very sparse and 

 thin pubescence ; the thorax and abdomen in certain lights 

 puberulous. Head, thorax and abdomen slightly shining, finely 

 and moderately closely punctured, but not opaque. Head rect- 

 angular, a little longer than broad, the posterior margin very 

 broad, as broad as the front of the head, transverse, the lateral 

 angles not prominent, rounded ; mandibles broad and linear, the 

 inner and outer margins parallel as in S. riifonir/ra ; clypeus 

 narrow, its anterior margin transverse, not medially dentate ; front 

 between the comparatively long vertical carina) raised, tubercnlate ; 

 antennte as in S. rvfomr/ru ; eyes lateral and a little to the front, 

 placed closer to the posterior than to the anterior lateral angles 

 of the head. Thorax as in S. rufonvjra, but proportionately 

 narrower, more compressed, the emargination at the meso-meta- 

 notal suture very much deei)er and wider, the metanotum higher, 

 viewed from the side A\'ith a regidar arch from front to back ; legs 

 moderately long, slender. Pedicel much lengtlieued : the nodes 

 low, petiolate in front, the 1st node from above oval, the petiole 

 long : 2nd node cup-shaped, much broader than the 1st, not con- 

 stricted posteriorly, and with a shorter petiole, the nodes not 

 dentate beneath : abdomen elongate, narrow ly oval. 



$ . Verv similar to the ^ , somewhat larger, more pilose, the 

 pedicel pro])ortionate]y slightly shorter, the petiole of the uodes 

 distinctly shorter, the abdomen more massive. 



Length., ^ 7-8 ; $11 nun. 



Hah. This ant at present is only recorded from Sikhim (Moller), 

 Bengal {liothney), Poona {Wrovghton), the Malabar Coast (Jerdon), 



