204 



Psyche 



[October-Decembei 



Fig. 2. Male of Diacamma auslrale x5. 



The workers are very agile and graceful in their movements and 

 both Rothney (1889) and Bingham (1903) regard them as by far 

 the most intelligent of Oriental ants. 



The species of Diacamma are also of unusual interest from 

 the fact that although several of them are common and have 

 often been observed in the field, no one has ever been able to 

 find in any one of them a form corresponding to the winged, 

 fertile female, or queen of other ants. Frederick Smith (1863), 

 nearly 60 years ago, described a worker and "female" of D. 

 rugosum subsp. tortuolosum and remarked that "the sexes were 

 identified by Mr. Wallace", but there can be little doubt that he 

 had before him a female belonging to some very different Ponerine 

 genus, possibly Bothroponera. In 1899 Col. Bingham remarked 

 that "Diacamma 9 has been for years a desideratum of Myrmeco- 

 logists", and he adds: "It makes me feel sad to think of the 

 many nests I have ruined, the hours of hard labour I have spent, 

 and the language I have used in the futile search for 9 Diacamma". 

 He then describes two specimens which he found escaping from 



