102 Lieut.-Col. Sykes's Descriptions 



pole of the tent in which they slept, preparatory to examination the 

 following day. In the night the men were awakened by repeated punc- 

 tures and general irritation of the skin, but the darkness prevented 

 them from discovering their tormentors, and they continued to toss 

 and tumble in their beds for some hours in no very complacent state 

 of mind : at last they got up, dressed themselves, and abandoned the 

 tent ; but the evil w^as rather aggravated than abated, as parts of 

 their persons which had previously escaped had now their share of 

 suffering. At daylight they discovered to their consternation that 

 they were covered wuth minute ants, which had filled their panta- 

 loons, penetrated the sleeves of their coats, and every other part of 

 their habiliments. On inspecting the tent, they found the interior 

 teeming with multitudes of little angry beings, in busy progress, seek- 

 ing to resent the outrage which had been committed on the com- 

 munity by the removal of their abode. 



My account of the natural history of this insect differs from that 

 of the genus in which it is provisionally placed. I simply describe 

 what I saw, and may have fallen into error in my deductions. I may 

 have mistaken an extraneous insect for a queen ; and I may have 

 mistaken the winged ants for males only, while they really comprised 

 both sexes : I may have made these mistakes ; but up to the present 

 moment my original impression remains unimpaired, that the tree 

 ant, in its natural history, approximates rather to the Termites and 

 Bees than to the genus Myrmica, and ultimately it may be found to 

 be the type of a new genus*. 



I had preserved the Queen ant, together with specimens of the 

 neuters and males, in a phial ; but not being able at present to find 

 it, after a diligent search, I have every reason to fear it was one of 

 several broken in the voyage from India, and the contents must have 

 been lost. 



The drawings were executed under the microscope, from nature, 

 with every possible care. 



The specific characters have been chosen from the drawings, as- 

 sisted by a detailed description of the insect made at the time the 

 drawings were executed. 



I need scarcely mention that it is to one of the most distinguished 

 entomologists of modern times that I have taken the liberty to de- 

 dicate this insect. 



* Smeathman gives four lines comprising a loose mention of Termes arhortim; 

 and in vol. vi. part 2, page 414, of Shaw, there is an engraving of the queen of this 

 species, from vrhat authority is not stated, resembling my queen of the Myrmica 

 Kirbii. It would appear, therefore, as if Smeathman had an impression that the 

 tree ants in their ceconomy resembled Termet bellicosus. 



