OUR ANTS. 201 



Mr. Rotliney . It was a capital imitation of 8. rufonigra, but I could 

 detect no connexion between it and the ants. On tbe other hand, I 

 saw several times a Rhinopsis seize a small cockroach (of a species of 

 which there were several specimens about) by the antennae^ lead 

 and drag it about, and finally disappear with it into some crevice of 

 the bark. In each case the cockroach reappeared uninjured, and in 

 one case was promptly taken charge of by another Bhinopsis. The 

 cockroach did not struggle or attempt to escape at any time^ and 

 S. rufonigra took not the slightest notice of it or of Jlhinojjsis. The 

 whole affair was most mysterious. The mimicking spider, mentioned 

 by Mr. Rothney, is common wherever /S, ri(/(?wt^m has communities ; a 

 very fine one was sent me by Mr. Aitken from Kanara. I have never 

 found the sexes in the nest, but have found a solitary $ once or twice. 



211. 8. nigra (Jerdon). 



Poona Districts (15-12-91,^,$). 



Kanara E. H. Aitken. 



Madras; Calcutta Gr. A. J. Rothney. 



In the Dekhan this form seems to be limited to the dry Eastern 

 Districts, where, however, it frequents moist positions, such as the 

 dense babul groves on the banks of the large rivers. I have never 

 examined a nest of 8. nigra without finding 9 winged or apterous, which 

 is a strong contrast with 8. rufonigra. Dr. Forel had called my attention 

 to a closely allied genus Pseudoniyrma, which is found nesting in the 

 large hollow thorns of a Nicaraguan Acacia. I searched many hun- 

 dred similar thorns of the Pulati {^Acacia latronum), where this bush 

 was the sole, or almost the sole, tree crop, and, though I found spiders, 

 lepidopterous larvse, &c., inhabiting the thorns, I foimd no ants. Lately, 

 however, I found on some Pulati bushes, growing near a babul grove 

 on the trees of which 8. nigra was common, a number of thorns 

 full of 8. nigra, nearly the half of each community being as 

 usual ? and $ . Whatever may be the case with Pseudomyrma, I have 

 no doubt that 8. nigra does not herself make these nests, but merely 

 occupies a convenient site for her nest ; nevertheless it is a curious 

 fact that two such closely related genera should, at opposite ends of the 

 world, have selected such similar positions for nesting, all the more so 

 that the position is one that would not strike a human being as any- 

 thing but most cramped and inconvenient. There is a spider ( 8alticus) 



