OnAP. XL THE MOGOKOr.A ANT. 227 



I have never "been able to find a single winged 

 specimen of any white ants Avhatever, hut I found 

 nnwinged queens in the musln^oom hives. 



The Mogokora Ant. — Often, while T was wallving in 

 the Otando prairie, another aut attracted my attention ; 

 it was called by the natives Mogolcora ; it is a ground 

 ant. Many hours I have spent in studying its hahits. 

 These ants are of a hlack colour ; many of them are an 

 inch in length, and they are the largest species of ants 

 I met with. They possess long and powerful nippers, 

 and, when once they have seized an insect, they never 

 relinquish their hold ; and they have often to struggle 

 very hard before overpowering their victim. Con- 

 sidering the large size of the insects which I have 

 seen them master, I judge that their strength must be 

 enormous. They wander solitarily over the prairie, 

 and it was only after the grass had been burnt, that 

 I could study them thoroughly. They seem to scour 

 it in search of prey ; insects and caterpillars being 

 their food. They inhabit holes or subterranean cham- 

 bers, and seem never to move very far from their 

 abodes ; as soon as they have captured an insect 

 they make for their galleries, and enter them with 

 their victim, which they devour at leisure. I never 

 saw them eat their prey out of their dens. These 

 holes or subterranean chambers are scattered over 

 the prairie, and each ant seems to know the one 

 that belongs to it. When they find an individual of 

 their own species dead, they carry it off to their den. 



These dens are found almost always on the decli- 

 vity of hills, so that the water may not enter them 



