( viii ) 



mandibles. Sometimes one sees the wounded being borne 

 home in their midst, some of them bristling with hostile 

 Termites, who have died with their jaws firmly embedded in 

 their black foes. The victors do not disembarrass their 

 friends' bodies of these appendages. ..." Captain Stigand 

 also described the blind rough-and-tumble of the battle, which 

 was usually subterranean but might be seen by breaking open 

 a Termites' nest in front of an invading army. He said that 

 the smaller workers were generally the bravest and the first 

 to enter the termitarium. The Termites defended themselves 

 by ejecting from the mouth a fluid which it was suggested 

 might be formic acid. This fluid although a powerful defence 

 was gradually expended. The author also stated that he had 

 " several times noticed a minute fly persistently following 

 round an ant carrying a dead Termite," and he concluded 

 " that it is awaiting a suitable opportunity to slip in and lay 

 its eggs in the body." Captain Stigand did not mention the 

 sound produced by the ants. 



Mr. Crawley remarked with regard to Megaponera foetens 

 that large ^ ^ only had been described by Fabricius, the 

 small ^ 5 having been subsequently described as crassi- 

 cornis by Gerstacker. He said that no $ ? were known, 

 and that Emery suggested that the large y ^ function as $ ?, 

 the small ones as ordinary ^ ^. He added that the <S is 

 known. 



Mr. Green said that a Ceylon ant {Lobopelta sp.) had 

 a habit of making a sound between stridulation and rustling, 

 and that the leaders wait until the whole column is massed 

 before attacking their prey. 



]\Tr. DoNiSTHORPE observed that stridulation was common 

 in the Ponerinae and Myrmicinae, and that even in the Cam- 

 ponotinae, Lasius, which does not possess true stridulating 

 organs, could produce a sound by rubbing one segment of the 

 gaster against another ; he added that it was this stridulation 

 which often caused a number of ants to collect at once on any 

 food found, or to come out in defence of the nest. 



Mr. Crawley said that some ants (e. g. Camponotus) 

 stridulate by rubbing the point of the gaster against the 

 ground, and that this process was used as a signal. 



