OUR ANTS. 191 



164. Th. lafinoda (Roger). 



Poona Districts ; Thana Districts (13-3-90, $ ), 



Madras ; Mussoori, N.-W.P ; Calcutta... G. A. J. Rothney. 

 This genus is exceptionally developed in the Dekhan, and I must 

 confess is my favourite. Though behind .Holcomt/rmex, Solenopsis, 

 Messor, and even their near relation Pheidologeton in road-making, to 

 my mind they bear off the palm in the matter of individual 

 intelligence. It has been proved (?) by numberless experiments 

 that, though ants can go Siud. fetch associates, they cannot send them. 

 These experiments, however, have all been made with European ants 

 (mostly Formicidce) and in captivity. One has only to frighten^ 

 with a piece of grass, the 5 about the entrance to a nest of Pheidole, 

 and to note the rapidity with which one or more 2^ come bustling 

 on to the scene, to have his faith in the result of these experiments 

 somewhat shaken. On one occasion I was trying to attract some 

 Triglyphothrix with a piece of bacon (in order to find the nest) ; a 

 single 5 of P. lafinoda appeared on the scene, and, having tasted the 

 bait, immediately started off at a run for home, meeting, and passing 

 the word to several 5 , on the way. I traced her to the nest, a good 

 ten paces off, and then returned at once to my bait. It had been 

 lying for a good quarter of an hour before the first ^ found it, but 

 immediately after my return to it, I became aware of several 5 

 making for it, not in a direct line, but quartering the ground like 

 pointers, and steadily advancing all the time in the right direction ; 

 nor were these following the return track of ^ No. 1, but were converg- 

 ing on the bait, each along a line of her own. Very shortly after -they 

 had reached the food, two or three 5 > followed by a lumbering 3-> 

 appeared, coming from the nest, following very closely, though some- 

 what hesitatingly, the return track of No. 1. On seeing them coming 

 I lifted the bait, and the few 5 which had already reached it, and 

 then saw the new comers arrive, and actually overrun the spot 

 where the bait had lain. It seemed to me clear that one or the other 

 batch of 5 must have been sent. In this genus the ^ , almost with- 

 out exception, are plucky and attack fearlessly even in the face of 

 'manifestations' (such, for instance, as a human being poking about 

 the entrance to the nest with a straw). When news of a ' find ' of 

 food or of * danger ' is conveyed into the nest, several 3- almost 



