336 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol. VIII, 
threads of the cocoon are themselves dark brown and the 
meconium is deposited in a compact meniscoidal mass within 
the anal end of the cocoon as in other Ponerine and in the 
Camponotine. This differs from the conditions in certain 
moths (Attacus atlas, Calosamia cynthia, Platysamia cecropia, 
Saturnia pyri, Eriogaster lanestris) which, according to Batensen, 
Schawraw, Peterson, Dewitz, Verson and others, are able to 
adapt the color of their cocoons to that of the objects to which 
they are attached. In these cases the silk is white or colorless, 
but is stained by a dark excretory pigment mechanically 
FIGURE 4 FIGURE 5 
Fig. 4. Rhytidoponera convexa. Workers and cocoon x13. 
z = wines y 9 b 
Fig. 5. Rhytidoponera sp. Worker and cocoon x1. 
applied to the threads as a result of the light stimulus acting 
directly on the spinning caterpillar. The larva of Diacamma, 
however, cannot thus be stimulated by the light to spin a dark- 
colored silk, because the cocoon is completed in the darkness, 
while the larva les buried in the earth. 
Negro or melanic cocoons, like those of Dzacamma, occur 
also in many if not all species of Rhytidoponera sens. str., (Figs. 
4 and 5), a genus largely confined to Australa and New Guinea. 
The nests of Rh. cristata Mayr, scabra Mayr and convexa Mayr, 
with the var. rufiventris Forel, are very similar to those of Dia- 
camma australe. They are craters with very large openings, built 
