ANTS — ilYRMICIDES 



169 



Eothney has given some particulars of the habits of Sima 

 rvfo-nigra, an ant of this group tliat appears to be not uncommon 



Fig. 72. — SIdm rvfo-nigra and 

 its as-sociates. A, winged 

 female ; B, worker, of the 

 ant ; C, lihinopsis niji- 

 c&rnis, a fossorial wasp of 

 the siib-famUy Ampi/li- 

 cides; D, a spider, iSaUiciis 

 sp. The coloration is ex- 

 tremely similar in all these 

 creatures. 



near Calcutta, where it lives on the trunks of trees in company 

 with a spider and a wasp that greatly resemble it in form a.nd 

 in colour. The three creatures seem to associate together 

 on amicable terms ; indeed the wasp and the ant occasionally 

 indulge in wrestling matches without doing 

 one anciner any serious harm. In connection 

 with this fact we may observe that other 

 species of ants have been observed to indulge 

 in sports and feats of agility. 



S. levicejjs, an Australian species of this 

 genus, is furnished with a stridulating file 

 that has the appearance of being constructed 

 so as to produce two very different kinds of Fig. 73, 

 sounds. 



iv. The Cryptoceeini are distinguished from other ants by their 

 antennae being inserted at the sides of the head, where they are 

 jjlaced between ridges or in a groove into which they can be 

 withdrawn ; when in some cases they are entirely concealed. 

 The.se ants assume a great variety of shapes and forms, some of which 

 look almost as if they were the results of an extravagant imagin- 

 ation. The skeleton is usuallv much harder than it is in other 



Stridulating file 

 of Sima Uviceps, 



