422 Mr. C. O. Farquharson’s Five Years’ Observations 
for I had no forceps with which to hold an undamaged. 
one, and I thought from the look of them that a forceps 
would be indispensable. I then got hold of the damaged 
ones in my fingers and smelt them at close quarters but 
could detect no smell, nor could my friend, the late Mr. 
Owen, whom I asked to confirm it. 
I cannot quite understand the “ great disparity in size 
between the two forms composing the colony,” which has 
a “very singular appearance.” The specimens which I 
brought home were typical and so far as I remember do 
not show a very singular disparity. I did not see the 
males and females. I had a winged form, or thought I 
had, of the species, but it got lost. It had emerged I think 
prematurely. I may have the good fortune of course to 
see them again, and even to see the actual raiding of a 
Termitary. By the way, is the prey of the Matabele ant the 
same species as that of the Nigerian Megaponera, because 
if so the three or four victims that each “ usually ” carries 
surely cannot be soldiers? In nearly every case my 
specimens carried soldiers, and some of the individual 
soldiers were larger than the ant. 
I thought at the time that to carry one and maintain 
its place in the ranks was no small feat on the part of 
a single Megaponera. I should think they specialise in 
Termites. Paltothyreus does not. I mentioned that earth- 
worms are a common prey, though when a Termitary is 
broken open they are soon in evidence. My female, P. 
tarsatus, which by the way was ruined by mould or some 
other agency (I have only the cast wings left), was, con- 
sidering her size, very timid, and retreated before a soldier 
Termite, so that I supplied them to her dead lest she herself 
should be destroyed. These she always carried down the 
burrow. A wretched big Sarcophagid fly accounted for her 
larvae, I think. I cannot say J have ever seen them even 
in a small file, but their nest or colony has numerous small 
exits with earth borings round each mouth or opening, 
and they keep constantly foraging round the immediate 
neighbourhood, each independent of the other. 
Arnold really had astonishing good luck to see their 
migration to a new nest and their queen too. Still 1 may 
manage to complete the account of the Nigerian ones. 
I think it would be well to get a few notes from Lamborn 
on Paltothyreus, especially in regard to the stridulation. 
It is possible we are all right, but I am glad that Lamborn’s 
