432 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



During the meeting, a long discussion took place about a 

 species of AjjMs, which has committed great ravages among 

 the sugar-canes in the West Indies. A Mr. J. C. Johnson, 

 who was present, and who had lately arrived from the West 

 Indies, stated that full two-thirds of the crops had been 

 destroyed by it. 



Eleventh Sitting. — August 4. 



CoL. Sykes took the chair. 



Mr. Ingpen exhibited the nest of a wasp (probably of the 

 genus Odynerus) which he had found behind a book-shelf; 

 some paper, which had fallen in the same situation acci- 

 dentally, had been curiously employed by the' insect for the 

 outer covering of its nest. The nest itself was composed of a 

 kind of mortar made from mud ; it was nearly five inches in 

 length, and had various circular apertures through which the 

 insects, on coming to perfection, had made their exit. 



The Secretary read a paper by Col. Sykes, on some 

 Indian species of ants, and gave some highly interesting par- 

 ticulars of their economy. The descriptions were of three 

 separate species. The first species builds its nest in trees, 

 fixing it with great strength and firmness ; the nest itself is 

 nearly globular, about eight inches in diameter, and built 

 entirely of dried cow-dung. The second species (we under- 

 stood the name to be indefessus) exhibits a remarkable instinct 

 very little short of reason. He was accustomed to have his 

 desert placed on a sideboard, near a wall, and left all night, 

 the legs of the sideboard being immersed in vessels of water ; 

 notwithstanding which precaution, the sideboard was found in 

 the morning covered with ants, and the sweets were plundered 

 most severely. On seeking the mode in which the intrusion 

 was effected, he found that they got one after another into 

 the water, till a floating living bridge was stretched across it, 

 and then the legs were readily mounted. This mode of access 

 was effectually stopped by a rim of turpentine round each of 

 the legs just above where they entered the water ; but the evil 

 was not cured ; for, on the following morning, the ants were 

 on the table, and the good things plundered as before ; he 

 found that the ants had crawled up the wall in great numbers, 

 and crowded to the part level with the edge of the side-board, 

 which was not more than an inch from the wall, and so 



