GENERAL NOTES- 
The ants which attend on the larvae of Spindasis lohita have a very strong smell, at 
least when hundreds of them are together, and on opening a large nest this odour is almost 
overpowering, though not exactly unpleasant. It even seems to taint the air in hot, damp weather 
in the localities inhabited by these ants. On disturbing a nest the inmates at once swarm over the 
hands, immediately seizing hold with their jaws, but their nip is insignificant. It is quite another 
matter if a nest of the large shiny jet-black ants is attacked by mistake, for their bite is severe, and 
they hang on like bulldogs, so that the body may be torn away and the jaws left in the flesh. By 
inadvertence one day a black ant was placed in a jar containing many of the species with which 
Spindasis larvae live; one after another of the latter would walk timidly up to the black ant and 
gently touch it with vibrating antennae. The black ant, however, seemed rather scared by the 
numbers of the red ants, and remained perfectly quiet, and was removed before doing any 
mischief. 
Both these ants seem confined to wooded or bushy country ; the species which enters 
houses, boats, everywhere in fact, and destroys or carries off anything eatable is a much smaller ant 
than the species which attends Spindasis , though resembling the latter and also of a red-brown 
colour. During the wet season a dead bird, butterfly or beetle is not to be laid down anywhere in 
the house for more than a few minutes before the carcase swarms with these little pests, and a long 
column is observed stretching from the dead creature down the leg of a table or the side of a box, 
along the floor and under the door, or up the wall and along the ceiling—from some obscure 
crevice the ants are sure to march in thousands, though not one was to be seen a few minutes 
before, but they seem to scent food in even a more mysterious way than vultures. They will often 
carry away, grain by grain, the birdseed out of a cage hanging from the ceiling by a wire or cord, 
travelling up and down thereby; if the desired object is isolated by water and a spider has 
opportunely bridged the space, the ants soon avail themselves of his silk ladder. These are the 
ants which seem specially to destroy larvse and pupae, and often a broad column of them may be 
observed crossing a dusty path, with a large object being pulled, pushed and hustled along, over 
rather than around obstacles, which on closer inspection proves to be a larva or pupa of some moth 
or butterfly. No doubt, however, the ants play a large part in scavenging, and clearing away dead 
creatures which otherwise would become offensive. 
