of new Indian Ants. 103 



DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES. 

 PLATE XIII. Fig. 1. 

 1 a. The nest of Myrmica Kirbii reduced in size according to the subjoined scale, 

 with the ants of the natural size creeping upon it. 1 b. The male. 



1 c. The neuter. 



Atta providens, Sykes. 

 Plate XIII. Fig. 2. 

 9 Nigra, capite magno, mandibulis et antennis nigris tarsisque 

 flavescentibus. Caput maximum, oblongo-quadratum, postice 

 emarginatum, piceo-nigrum. Mandibulse latse arcuatae, apice 

 truncatse, dentibus duobus, antice minutis. Antennae nigrae, ar- 

 ticulis tribus ultimis incrassatis. Thorax parvus, subbipartitus, 

 antice convexus posticeque bispinosus. Squama anterior petio- 

 laris par\'a, transversa, posterior transverso-elevata, lateribus 

 acute productis. Abdomen rotundatum. Pedum femoribus et 

 tibiis piceis, geniculis ferrugineis tarsisque pallidioribus. 

 Long. corp. lin. 1^, lat. corp. lin. 1. 

 Habitat in India Orientali circa Poona. 

 Mus. Dom. Sykes. 



In illustration of the habits of this species of ant I shall give the 

 following extract from my Diary. 



" Poona, June 19, 1829. — In my morning walk I observed more 

 than a score of little heaps of grass- seeds (Panicum) in several places 

 on uncultivated land near the parade-ground ; each heap contained 

 about a handful. On examination I found they were raised by the 

 above species of ant, hundreds of which were employed in bringing 

 up the seeds to the surface from a store below : the grain had proba- 

 bly got wet at the setting in of the monsoon, and the ants had taken 

 advantage of the first sunny day to bring it up to dry. The store 

 must have been laid up from the time of the ripening of the grass- 

 seeds in January and February. As I was aware this fact militated 

 against the observations of entomologists in Europe, I was careful not 

 to deceive myself by confounding the seeds of a panicum with the 

 pupae of the insect. Each ant was charged with a single seed ; but 

 as it was too weighty for many of them, and as the strongest had 

 some difficulty in scaling the perpendicular sides of the cylindrical 

 hole leading to the nest below, many were the falls of the weaker 

 ants with their burthens from near the summit to the bottom. I 

 observed they never relaxed their hold, and with a perseverance af- 

 fording a useful lesson to humanity, steadily recommenced the ascent 

 after each successive tumble, nor halted in their labour until they 



