capture and carry off to their nests all kinds of insects and other 
small animals. I have seen them carrying off millepeds and 
small snails ; and on one track 1 counted as many as ten snails at 
once being carried along in the space of about two yards, and 
this destruction was going on for several days at the same rate. 
They also destroy large insects by attacking and biting them to 
f C A very similar if not identical species however destroys as well 
any small seeds which they come across, carrying them down 
their holes and biting portions off them, eventually throwing out 
again the relics of the destroyed seed. Any seed as big as rice or 
smaller is eaten in this way, and this is probably the reason, why 
it appears to be impossible to raise grass turf from seed success- 
fully here. Any one who has tried this must be surprised at the 
way that however much grass seed is sown on properly prepared 
ground, little or none comes up, even if covered so as to prevent 
the grass-finches from eating it. Where small seeds such as ha- 
, mies or Ficus elastica or even larger seeds are sown in the nui- 
sery; the planter is very apt to lose a large proporton if th ere 
are many of these ants’ nests in the neighbourhood. 
These terrestrial ants may also do some damage by piling up 
mounds over young plants. They however do some amount oi 
good to the soil, at least in some cases, by turning it over and 
breaking it up, but as a rule they are not abundant enough to be 
of much use in this way. 
Orthoptera — The Coffee Locust. 
Cyrtacanthacris nigrovaria , Walker. 
The coffee locust ( Cyrtacanthacris nigrovaria, Walker) is a very 
common and conspicuous insect occurring all over the Peninsula 
from Singapore as far North as Perak and Penang. It is about 
o inches in length with a large head and conspicuous eyes the 
antennae slender f inch long black, the thorax | an inch long, 
and both it and the head are light yellowish green with black 
spots on the sides above blackish grey with a broad yellow line 
ibmiiiig from the hasp «*© auicmiie down the back, the upper 
wings 2 inches long, are greenish brown, finely netted, and the 
upper edges are greenish yellow, so that when at rest the yellow 
band on the head and thorax continues along the edge of the 
closed wings; the lower wings are broad and transparent tinted 
and veined with brown, except the bases which are pink, and 
very conspicuous when the insect flies, the abdomen is dull 
greenish brown, shorter than the wings. The first two pairs 01 
legs are short and blackish green. The hinder jumping pair very 
large, and powerful, the thighs (femora) an inch long very thick 
at the base and tapering to the tibia greenish yellew, with two 
broad bands and the end black at the j oint which is dilated some- 
what are two vellow flanges, the tibia is an inch long black and 
armed on the back with a double row of yellowish thorns with 
black tips, the tarsus is short, a quarter of an inch long with 
