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ME. A. E. WALLACE ON INDIAN ETC. 



from the impossibility of escaping its attacks, though it is not 

 very destructive. 



The genus Tapinoma is scarce in the East. The only species 

 which I found in abundance was the T. glabrata, which is a 

 house-ant in Malacca, and is called by the Malays " Sumut 

 gila" (the mad ant) from the extraordinary manner in which it 

 rushes about hither and thither apparently without any object. 

 It is not, however, very destructive. 



The curious spiny ants forming the genus PolyrJiachis are very 

 abundant in the whole archipelago, though they never swarm 

 like so many others of the family, and rarely inhabit houses. 

 They seem to be truly arboreal species, and are mostly of a 

 rather large size. Many of them are beautifully sculptured or 

 curiously furrowed; and the fantastically shaped spines with 

 which they are almost ail furnished render them very interesting 

 objects for examination. The large P. bikamatus, with its curious 

 dorsal hooks, is common in the forests of most of the islands, 

 running slowly upon timber and the trunks of trees. P. Icevi- 

 gatus and P. chalybeus were found on rocks on Mount Ophir, at 

 an elevation of nearly 4000 feet. P. scutulatus was found abun- 

 dantly at sugar-cane refuse in the Aru Islands. P. fervens 

 makes a brown papery nest on branches in Amboyna. That of 

 P. rugifrons, found in Ceram, was about two feet long, attached 

 to the vertical trunk of a tree. When disturbed the ants rush 

 out, and, turning the abdomen under the body, strike it against 

 the firm papery nest, producing a loud rattling noise. This nest 

 consisted internally of large irregular cells ; and the inmates were 

 not very numerous. It was the largest nest I observed of any 

 species of this genus. P. seocspinosus forms a somewhat similar 

 nest, but smaller, and attached to the surface of a large leaf. 

 That of P. textor is of an open fibrous material, and only an 

 inch in diameter. P. Acasta rolls up a leaf and forms within the 

 cylinder a coarse papery nest. P. Uudora, of Batchian, was found 

 under bark, with a nest consisting of a very few, small, imperfect, 

 fragile cells, comprising in all only half a dozen individuals and 

 about as many larvsa. P. bikamatus, and some other species, 

 have their nest of a few exposed cells on the trunks of trees, and 

 seem to exist only in very small communities. The other nests of 

 ants of this genus observed by me were : — P. rugifrons, a soft 

 papery nest on a smooth tree, about 12 inches long, with several 



