204 Mr. Gr. A. J ames Rothney's 
two rather interesting nests formed round the trunks 
of palm trees, the roots of which were infested with a 
small Ooccid. The ants heaped up their mounds to 
cover the parts so affected, and in places where these 
little Coccids were present well up on the trunk the 
ants had pushed their covered ways (which looked very 
like termite galleries) so as to reach and enclose them ; 
some of these galleries were carried quite two feet up 
the trunk of the tree. 
As described by Mr. Wroughton, Solenopsis is a 
strong harvester on the Western side, but I have not 
met with this trait in her in Bengal, the North-west 
Provinces or Madras (City). 
PheidoJe rhomhinodaj Mayr. 
I found some nests in Barrackpore Park, covered over 
in a perfect circle (taking the centre from the entrance, 
the circumference would equal about 10 to 12 inches), 
with the leaflets of some species of mimosa, but no 
leaflets were found in the nest itself on digging it up, 
and the even and umbrella-like appearance of the 
arrangement seems to suggest a protection against heafc 
or rain, as the object the ants have in view. 
In Madura, I came across a number of nests of a 
very curious and, to me, novel form. 
The entrances were surrounded by little mounds ar- 
ranged in a circle, composed of the dead bodies, or parts 
of bodies, of Camponotus compressns and G. rufoglaucus, 
but chiefly the big soldiers of compressus. There were 
heads alone, heads with the thorax attached, thorax 
without the head, bodies without thorax, with a scatter- 
ing of legs and antennae, attached and unattached, in 
every possible form, but I could not find any of these 
portions in the nests. Now the question arises. What are 
these mounds for, and how does Pheidole collect and 
form them? Are they simply carcases stacked, to be 
cut up at leisure and carried into the nest in suitable 
sizes for future provision, or are these bodies arranged 
as a grim warning to prowling enemies, after the fashion 
of the skulls set up at the entrance to the villages of 
some wild and primitive tribe ? and, then, how does 
Pheidole collect them ? It is hardly possible that they 
are killed and brought in, for Pheidole would have to 
be in overwhelming force to master a single giant- 
