24 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



large trees, there is a tendency, with subterranean species, to become 

 quasi-arboreal, while in the dry, treeless country of the Eastern 

 Dekhan, the tendency is the other way. Moreover, I thought, when 

 I was in Thana in 1884, that I detected several cases of change 

 of locality with the seasons, which would be easily accounted for by 

 the very heavy rainfall of the Konkan. Unfortunately, however, I 

 did not record any notes, so that my conjecture is of little value, 

 except as a hint for future observers. Amongst the species which 

 nest in the ground, there is a great diiference in the form of the 

 nest. Among the Fonnicidce, the normal plan of the nest would seem 

 to be a main shaft (often branching near the surface to more than 

 one opening, especially when the entrance is under a stone), which 

 runs down obliquely, to a main chamber, which is surrounded, on the 

 same plane, by a maze of passages, widening in places into subsidiary 

 chambers. The depth, below the surface, of this main floor, is seldom 

 very great. With the Poneridce, there is usually a maze of passages 

 and chambers, close to the surface (ai the surface when the nest is 

 under a stone) with a main vertical shaft, going to a considerable 

 depth, and ending in a main chamber. I have had to dig 4 feet to 

 reach the main chamber of a nest of Botthrojionera sulcata. I know 

 nothing of the nesting of the Dorylidce ; it has never been my good 

 fortune to find a nest, but I live in hope. The nests I have heard 

 of have always been in the foundations of a bungalow ; as, for instance, 

 the flight of 6 , from the floor of his bathroom, recorded by B. H. A. 

 Should I ever find a nest, I can only hope, it may be in some one 

 else's bungalow, for I have got to dig that nest. With the Mijrmi' 

 cidcB, the normal plan, is a vertical shaft, ending below in a main 

 chamber, with numerous subsidiary chambers or landings (formed 

 by the widening of the main shaft) at frequent intervals. From 

 each of these landings, horizontal passages (], 2, or 3) run out a 

 short distance, and end in a chamber. The main chamber is very 

 deep as a rule ; with such a minute species as Triglyphothrice Walshi, 

 I have had to dig 3 feet to reach it. I do not of course pretend to 

 maintain that this normal plan is always strictly adhered to ; on the 

 contrary, I imagine it is the very rare exception. There are 

 differences of taste in architecture amongst ants, no doubt, as 

 amongst humans, and, moreover, the nature of the soil must 



