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XII. On stridulation in ants. By Dr. Davip SHARP, 
M.A., F.RB.S., F.L.5., &e. 
[Read March 8th, 1893.] 
Puate IX. 
Tur question whether ants possess definite organs for 
the production of sound has been discussed by Landois, 
Lubbock, and one or two others, but no very extensive 
or decisive evidence has yet been brought forward on the 
subject. My object in this paper is to point out that 
many kinds of ants possess very perfect special stridu- 
lating organs, and that these are not only of very great 
delicacy, but are accompanied with such perfect articu- 
lations as to render it probable that the insects by their 
aid can produce a considerable variety of sounds, and 
have in all probability much power of modulating these. 
Landois, in a scarce book called * Thierstimmen,’ an- 
nounced, in a few words in 1874, that an ant he called 
Ponera quadridentata possesses a true stridulating organ, 
and he added that this is also the case with Lasius 
fuliginosus ; shortly afterwards Lubbock, alluding to 
Landois’ discovery, sketched a structure in Lasius flavus 
that he thought might possibly be connected with pro- 
duction of sound. About the same time Swinton men- 
tioned that he had heard sound produced by Mrymica 
ruginodis, and gave a rough sketch of what he thought 
was the organ for its production. These cases are all 
that I know of, except a brief allusion by Prof. Forel to 
a structure in a Madagascar Ponerid, Leptogenys falei- 
gera, which, he remarks, may possibly be an organ of 
stridulation. 
The structure first alluded to by Landois in Ponera 
quadridentata is doubtless a true stridulating organ; but 
what he described in Lasius fuliginosus, and what Lub- 
bock sketched in Lasius flavus, are not stridulating 
organs, but are merely the sculpture that exists on 
articulating abdominal surfaces in ants generally. Al- 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1893.—PART I. (JUNE.) 
