536 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, X1II 
No, IX.—RED ANTS AS AN ARTICLE OF FOOD. 
That there is any economic value attached to the red ants (Gcophylla 
smaragdina) is, I think, so little known that the following note may be of 
interest. Mr. Hunt, the Forest Officer of Bastar, has supplied me with the 
details. The Murries of Bastar—the southernmost Native State in the 
Central Provinces—use the red ants as a regular article of diet. 
Throughout the year, but more especially during the dry season, the 
Purjas—a sub-class of the Murries—collect nests of the red ants, and after 
tearing them open, shake out the contents into a cloth, and beat the insects— 
mature and immature—into a pulpy mass with a stone, and when all are 
dead, enclose them in a packet, about the size of a Goose’s egg made of sal 
leaves. In this condition the article is taken to the bazaar and sold, abcut 
16 being sold for a pice, or 4 cowries each. To prepare the squashed ants 
for food, they are mixed with salt, turmeric and chillies, and ground down 
between stones, and are then eaten raw with boiled rice. They are some- 
times cooked up with rice flour, salt, chillies, &c., into a thick paste, and in 
this condition the food is said to give the eater of it great power of resist- 
ance against fatigue and the sun’s heat. 
A. M. LONG, 
Raipur, C. P., September, 1900, 
No. X.—A NEW SPIDER, 
Mr. Pocock’s valuable note on the genus Pecilotheria enables me to 
announce what I expect will prove to be a new species of this genus, If so, 
the range of Pecilotheria will have to be extended to cover probably the 
greater part of India, for my specimen was taken in a house at Dehra Dun. 
It isa male, The lower side is entirely black, or very dark brown about the 
thorax and mouth, The legs are entirely black above and below, except the 
patella joint of each leg (palpi included), which is flesh-coloured above and 
darker below. The upper surface of the cephalo-thorax is flesh-coloured, 
The abdomen is also flesh-coloured above, as regards the skin, which shows 
through a velvety coating of black hairs with brown tips, but its general 
effect is dark brown, When the spider sits still with his legs bunched up 
he bears an odd resemblance toa black flower with a fleshy centre anda 
flesh-coloured ring round the corolla. It has been sent to the British 
Museum, Iam sorry I did not measure the animal, but itis now stiff, The 
size, however, is about that of the one in the plate accompanying Mr, 
Pocock’s paper. 
F. GLEADOVW, 1.F.8., F.B.M.S, 
DenRA Dun, August, 1900, 
SS 
