POLYRHACHIS. 387 



I once found a nest of this species in the Thaungyin valley. It 

 was of silky yellowish-brown material, placed close to the ground 

 in the centre of a clump of bamboos, and measured about a foot in 

 diameter. 



452. PolyrhacMs bellicosa, Smith, Jour. Linn. Soc. iii (1859), p. 142, ; 

 Ford, Jour. Bomb. N. H. Sac. viii (1893), p. 21, . 



. Resembles P. bihamata, Drury, but is a smaller, slighter 

 insect, and the spines of the thorax and pedicel are different in 

 shape. Head, apices of the femora, the tibiae and tarsi, the apices 

 of the thoracic and pedicel spines and the abdomen black ; pubes- 

 cence as in P. bihamata, but not quite so dense, and entirely 

 destitute of erect hairs. Pronotal spines short, pointing outwards 

 and downwards ; mesonotal spines curved and sloping obliquely 

 back. Node of the pedicel columnar, spines very much shorter 

 proportionately than in P. bihamata, and curved backwards, down- 

 wards and slightly outwards. 



Length, $ 8-9 mm. 



Nab. I picked up a solitary specimen in the Mergui Forest 

 Experimental Gardens, and Dr. Forel has received this species 

 from Singapore. It occurs in Sumatra, Borneo and Java. 



453. Polyrhachis ypsilon, Emery, Ann. Mus. do. Gen. xxiv (1886), 

 p. 239, $. 



. Closely resembling P. bihamata, Drury, but it is larger, with 

 the thoracic and pedicel spines somewhat differ- 

 ently shaped, and it differs also in colour and 

 pubescence. Black, with the node of the pedicel 

 more or less reddish yellow ; pubescence fairly 

 dense, recumbent and of a greyish, in some speci- 

 mens of a rich golden yellow ; head, thorax and 

 abdomen very finely rugulose beneath the pubes- 

 cence. Head a little longer and more oval than 

 in P. bihamata, with the elypeus broadly verti- 

 cally carinate down the middle (in P. b'Jiamatu it 

 i s eonvex a nd not carinate). Pronotal and meso- 

 notal spines similar to those in bihamata, but 



i i A \ t> \ 



of <3. much thicker, and their apices instead of being 



bent backwards are turned a little outwards ; legs 

 as in bihitmata, thickly spiuosc. >'ode of pedicel columnar, with 

 two long hooked spines curved outwards and divergent from base ; 

 abdomen short, globose. 



Length, $ 10'5-H mm. 



Hob. Ceylon (Forel) ; Singapore ; Sumatra ; Borneo. 



Dr. Forel received this species from Ceylon ; I have only seen 

 JSumatran specimens, from one of which the above description is 

 taken. 



