( ix ) 



atmoriella, Bankes, taken in Kent, in June, 1894, a recent 

 addition to British Lepidoptera. 



Mr. E. E. Green read notes on the habits of the Indian 

 ant, (EcopJnjUa sitiarandina, Fabr. He said he beheved that 

 at some previous meeting of the Society, Mr. Eidley, of the 

 Singapore Museum, made some remarks on this ant and its 

 supposed habit of using its own larvae as web-spinners in 

 the formation of its nest, but he had not been able to find 

 anything on the subject in the Proceedings. He stated that 

 he was now able to produce corroborative evidence from an 

 independent source. The facts were noted by his friend, 

 Mr. W. D. Holland, of Balangoda, Ceylon, a most careful 

 observer. Mr. Green exhibited the specimens referred to by 

 Mr. Holland, and pointed out that the larvae were still tightly 

 grasped by the jaws of the ants, and he thought it probable 

 that other web-spinning ants utilized their larvas in the same 

 way. He also read the following extracts from Mr. Holland's 

 letters to him on the subject : — 



" I send by this post a small bottle with ' red ants,' and the 

 small grub they use to sew, or rather stick, the leaves to- 

 gether when making their nests. Their modiis operandi is to 

 pull leaves together with their jaws, great numbers acting in 

 combination. When the leaves are in position they are sewn 

 together by the ants taking the grubs in their jaws and 

 passing them backwards and forwards from edge to edge of 

 the leaves to be sewn together. Where the grub touches the 

 leaf a thread is drawn out, adhering to the leaf much as a 

 spider attaches its thread. This process is repeated from edge 

 to edge until a felted waterproof kind of papery stuff is made, 

 somewhat resembling cigarette paper, by an innumerable num- 

 ber of threads glued or felted together. They also use these 

 grubs to spin webs when fortifying the tree in which they 

 live against the small ants with which they are continually 

 at war. Leaf stipules, dirt, small stones, etc., are brought by 

 the ' red ants ' and inserted in the web spun with the aid of 

 the small grubs. On the tree I am watching now there is 

 nearly a complete circle round the trunk (a foot or more in 

 diameter). If you slightly part two leaves in a red ants' 

 nest, say a quarter of an inch, you will be able to see the 



