PHIDOLE. 22 L 



the scape short, the basal joint of the flagellum globose, the apical 

 joints not forming a distinct club ; ocelli three, somewhat wide 

 apart and prominent. Thorax massive, short, the mesonotum 

 much raised and gibbous, the metanotum depressed vertically 

 beneath the scutellum, its basal portion level, unarmed, its apical 

 portion truncate. Wings the fore wing with an open radial, two 

 cubitals and a discoidal cell. Pedicel as in the $ . Abdomen 

 less massive, the external genital valves cultriform, the apex 

 obliquely truncate. 



The ants belonging to this genus are harvesters like the species 

 of Messor and Phidologiton, but are, as Mr. Wroughton also has 

 noticed and recorded, far behind the species of those genera in the 

 matter of road-making. The species of Phidole are not common 

 in Burma, not nearly so common, so far as my experience goes, as 

 Phidologiton, Solenopsis, or even Holcomyrmex. The only species 

 that came at all frequently under my observation was one that I 

 took to be P. sulcaticeps, Mayr, but which has since been separated 

 as a distinct race under the name "yeensis" by Dr. Forel. Further 

 on I record the few notes I made about this species. 



Mr. Wroughtou states regarding the intelligence, &c., of 

 Phidole that " It has been proved (?) by numberless experiments 

 that though ants can go and fetch associates, they cannot send 

 them. These experiments, however, have all been made with 

 European ants (mostly Formicidae = ? Camponotince) and in 

 captivity. One has only to frighten with a piece of grass the $ 

 about the entrance to a nest of Phidole, and to note the rapidity 

 with which one or more I/ come bustling on to the scene, to have 

 his faith in the result of these experiments somewhat shaken. 

 On one occasion I was trying to attract some Triylyphothrix with 

 a piece of bacon (in order to find the nest); a single $ f 

 P. latinoda appeared on the scene and, having tasted the bait, 

 immediately started off at a run for home, meeting and passing 

 the word to several $ n the way. I traced her to the nest a 

 good ten paces off, and then returned at once to my bait. It had 

 been lying for a good quarter of an hour before the first $ found 

 it, but immediately after my return to it I became aware of several 

 making for it, not in a direct line, but quartering the ground 

 like pointers, and steadily advancing all the time in the right 

 direction ; nor were these following the return track of $ No. 1, 

 but were converging on the bait, each along a line of her own. 

 Very shortly after they had reached the food, two or three $ 

 followed by a lumbering ?/ appeared coming from the nest, fol- 

 lowing very closely though somewhat hesitatingly the return track 

 of No. 1. On seeing them coming I lifted the bait and the few 

 which had already reached it, and then saw the newcomers 

 arrive and actually overrun the spot where the bait had lain. 

 It seemed to me clear that one or the other batch of $ must have 

 been sent" 



On the path leading from the Forest Inspection bungalow at 

 Maymyo, the little hill-station near Mandalay, were two or three 



