1851.] 



found in Southern India. 



121 



I have only found this Ant in forests in Malabar and always 

 singly. 



34. Formica Smakagdina. 



Worker, length about 4-10th of an inch ; head long, triangular ; 

 antennae long; eyes large, medial; jaws triangular, pointed, with 

 sharp teeth ; thorax not furrowed ; abdominal pedicle, long, low, 

 narrow, linear ; legs long ; colour of an uniform pale rufous. 



Male 7-24th of an inch long ; head diamond shaped ; eyes lateral, 

 small; thorax raised in front; abdomen small; wings reaching 

 beyond the abdomen ; of a rufous colour. 



Female 7-8th of an inch long ; head short, triangular; eyes lateral; 

 three ocelli; thorax very large, wide; abdominal pedicle wide in 

 the middle as viewed from above, very thin laterally ; abdomen 

 large; wings reaching beyond abdomen; entirely of a pale shining 

 green colour* 



This Ant is well known in Malabar, and the wooded parts of 

 India, but is rare in the Carnatic, where I have only seen it in one 

 or two large Mango groves. 



It forms a nest of living leaves which it draws together without 

 detaching from the branch, and unites with a fine white web; 

 sometimes this nest is above a foot in diameter but usually smaller. 

 The society consists of a vast number of individuals, and in large 

 nests we find many females and males, both with and without their 

 wings at all times of the year. They are very bold and pugnacious, 

 and bite very severely. They live chiefly on vegetable secretions* 

 and are very partial to the flowers and buds of some of the Loranthi, 

 which abound so on the Western Coast, they often form a tem- 

 porary web round the flowers or sometimes round the fruit of vari- 

 ous trees, viz. the Eugenia Malaccensis, Artabothrys odorotissima, 

 kc. apparently only for the purpose of feeding undisturbed they will 

 however also sometimes feed on decaying animal matter. It is 

 said that the web they form is occasionally used for writing on 

 in the N. W. Provinces of India, and that the Ants are made uses 

 of to destroy a nest of wasps that may have established themselves 

 in a house. In this case they are said to destroy all the wasps 

 but become so infuriated, that their own indiscriminate attacks are 



VOL. XVII. NO. XXXIX. Q 



