1972] 
Gotwald — Oecophylla 
353 
claws on lichens and mosses growing on the bark. Eventually 2 
workers managed to carry it up into the tree. Way (1954) timed 
the stretching of a honeybee by O. longinoda workers and found it 
also lasted 20 minutes. 
The predatory attack of O. longinoda on Anomma driver ants 
is thus divisible into 3 phases : ( 1 ) the attack phase, in which an 
individual Anomma worker is seized and removed from the column; 
(2) the immobilization phase, in which additional O. longinoda 
workers are recruited to stretch the Anomma worker until it is no 
longer able to move; and (3) the transfer phase, in which the im- 
mobilized Anomma worker is carried to the Oecophylla nest. 
Although in all observations the Oecophylla workers carried off 
many Anomma workers, the number may not be significant with re- 
spect to the total number of Anomma workers comprising a colony. 
Way (1954) notes, in his observations of Oecophylla attacks on A. 
nigricans, that in one case, in a period of an hour, 348 Ano?nma 
were carried into one tree and 252 into another. 
The importance of driver ants in the diet of O. longinoda can- 
not be calculated at this point. It is known that insect prey and 
sugars are essential for the survival and reproduction of an O. long- 
inoda colony (Vanderplank, i960). The role of Anomma as a food 
source may depend, to a large extent, on chance movements of A nom- 
ma columns into Oecophylla colony territories. Obviously the prob- 
ability of such an occurrence depends, in part, on the colony densities 
of prey and predator in a given area. The efficiency of foraging 
behavior in Anomma may in itself increase the probability of chance 
encounters with Oecophylla. Numerous foraging columns, for in- 
stance, may simultaneously work out from an Anomma nest, may 
frequently change direction, and may start anew each day, thus en- 
abling the colony, in its search for nutrient sources, to probe the 
environment in many directions. 
Are the roles of predator and prey in the Oecophylla-Anomma in- 
teraction ever reversed ? Evidence for such a reversal might be 
found in the prey materials carried by Anomma workers back to the 
nest. I made 11 extensive surveys of prey taken from Anomma for- 
aging columns in areas where O. longinoda is also found, and in 
only one sample was there such evidence. It contained the gaster of 
an adult O. longinoda worker. It appears that O. longinoda is not 
often attacked by Anomma , though it is not likely that Oecophylla 
could effectively resist an Anomma foraging swarm. However, it 
is probable that the arboreal nests of O. longmoda are simply out of 
reach of A nomma foragers. My own observations indicate that while 
