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OUR ANTS. 



By Robert Charles Wroughton, f.e.s., Deputy Conservator 

 of Forests, Poona. 



Part I. 



With Plates A and B. 



(Read before the Bombay Natural History Society, 5th April, 1891.) 



I HAVE only come across two papers treating of the manners and 

 customs of * our ' ants (if I except a very short and very inaccurate 

 paper which appeared in " Science Gossip " many years ago) . One 

 of these by Mr, Rothney has been reprinted in this Journal, and the 

 other will be found in "Tribes on my Frontier." In the latter 

 E. H. A. has drawn a humorous but life-like picture of a few of the 

 commoner species. The colonizing ant of his Bath-Room is a 

 Dorylus; its black enemy ia Camponotus compressus. The " red ant 

 of Matheran " is of course ^cophylla smaragdina ; the lively black 

 bungalow ant is certainly Prenolepis longicornis, and the * brown' 

 ant almost as certainly Monomorium basale ( = vastator) though tho 

 name given is a libel, for basale is really a handsome yellow with a 

 black abdomen. His agricultural ant is a Holcomyrtnex, and finally 

 his hunting ant is a Poneride, and most likely a Lobopelta, but 

 there is less detail than usual in the notice of this species. The 

 facility with which I have been able to recognize these species, 

 from E. H. A.'s descriptions, has emboldened me to think that a 

 record of the manners and customs, which have come under my 

 notice in the last few years, during which I have been paying special 

 attention to the ants, would not be without value. I am glad to 

 know that Dr. Forel, who has been so kind in identifying and, where 

 necessary, describing and naming my specimens for me, intends to 

 publish in this Journal the result of his labours. I propose therefore 

 to avoid all technical descriptions. I shall try, however, wherever 

 possible, to record any characteristic feature which may help to the 

 recognition of any species. In the following notes my facts are facts, 

 or have presented themselves to me as such, but my generalizations 

 must be taken cum grano salis. No one is better aware than myself 

 how many-sided is the psychology of an ant ; how differently is her 



