352 Mr. G. A. J. Eothney's notes 



this nest, I never detected any special trait or character 

 worth recording. I never found any other species in the 

 nest nor Aphida3j and, as far as I could observe, the ants 

 derived their nourishment from the rich, black, moist 

 mould of the decaying wood. They are a gentle species 

 of ant, and can be handled without inconvenience. 



Polyrhachis Schrinax, Eoger. 



This ant forms its nest by binding together with one 

 or two silky threads a couple of leaves of a shrub ; it 

 only contains a few individuals, and is decidedly rare. 

 The same remarks apply to Polyrhachis hicolor, Smith. 



Polyrhachis spiniger, Mayr. 



This is a common species in Bengal, but the nests are 

 not easily found ; they are formed by web-work binding 

 together a few twigs of a spiny shrub like a dwarf 

 babool, and I have not found them in any other plant. 

 This species was described from specimens taken in the 

 Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. 



Pseudomyrma hicolor, Guer., Sm. 



Sirtia rufo-nigra {nigrum), Jerdon. 



This species (the female of which is figured and de- 

 scribed by Frederick Smith in the Entomological Trans- 

 actions for March, 1875, froni my specimens taken at 

 Barrackpore) is very common in Bengal ; it forms its 

 nests in the dead (but not decayed) wood of trees, and it 

 can always be met with scouring over the trunks, 

 particularly of fruit-trees like the mango {Mangifera 

 indica), bael {^gle marmelos), and lychee {Nepheliiim 

 Lichi). Though so generally common, the nests are 

 not easy to find, and I only met with two thoroughly 

 well-established colonies that could be visited and 

 watched year after year (the first was situated in a tree 

 in Barrackpore Road, opposite the Park-gates, just 

 where the trunk-road turns off by the Club ; the other 

 in a small tree in the Park, in some waste ground by 

 the viceregal kitchen-garden. These nests I have spent 

 hours in watching from 1874 to 1886). It is a very 

 pugnacious species, and attacks almost any insect that 



