( vii ) 



in all directions. They sting severely (I have been stung more 

 than once) and can also, I think, bite. I am not quite sure 

 whether they do at the same time produce an unpleasant smell. 

 Many ants of this type do, but I am not quite certain whether 

 it is true of this species. When I was at Kambove in 1907, 

 there was a nest of this species under the house I lived in for 

 some weeks. A raiding party (not by any means all the 

 workers) went out every morning between 8 and 9 a.m., and 

 returned at various times between noon and 3 p.m., generally 

 about 1 p.m. So far as I remember, they never failed to 

 bring back a number of Termites. It is perhaps noteworthy 

 that when a raiding party is returning only a certain number 

 are laden, the advance- and rear-guard and the individuals 

 at the ends of the files usually ' having their hands free.' 



" I once in the Luangwa Valley, I think in 1908, witnessed 

 the end of a fight between these ants and some Termites. 

 I am not at all clear how it was that the Termites were outside 

 the nest and whether the ants had themselves entered the 

 nest or decoyed the Termites out in some way. The fight 

 took place on a bare spot near the nest, which was not a true 

 mound, and therefore the Termites may have belonged to 

 one of the species which moves about in the open. The 

 fight was just over when I arrived, and the ants were beginning 

 to go ofi with their spoils. They had suffered one casualty, 

 a single individual having been snipped in half by a large 

 soldier Termite. So far as I could see workers chiefly and 

 not soldier Termites were carried off. After the battle was 

 over the behaviour of the Termites was interesting, as numbers 

 of workers came out of the nest and inspected the field, which 

 was strewn with dead and wounded, the ants having killed 

 and injured more than they could carry away. The wounded 

 soldier Termites but not the workers were then taken back into 

 the nest." 



Prof. PouLTON concluded that M.foetens was almost certainly 

 the ant referred to by Captain C. H. Stigand in " Hunting the 

 Elephant in Africa, etc.," New York, 1913. The author spoke 

 on pp. 248-250 of often meeting in the bush long streams 

 of black ants which had just been raiding Termites' nests. 

 " Every member of the party is carrying a Termite in his 



