230 
HYMENOP I’ERA, 
tur plants (Cajanus indicus) grown for inoculation with wilt in a special 
plot; these plants they ate into just below the soil level, eating right into 
the stem and through to the bark till the plant fell over, cut completely 
off; as much as half an inch of stem would be completely eaten and the 
object apparently was, not the removal of the plant but the actual soft 
stem for food. Plants that had been inoculated were most attacked, and 
it is possible that the tissues were specially attractive on that account. 
As a rule, this ant feeds on anything sweet and visits Aphides and Coccids 
constantly. The nests are underground, very deep and populous. 
Iridomyrmex anceps, Rog., nests in sandy soil near plants infested 
with aphids, and there are regular tracks to these plants; the nests are 
deep and several minor ones are often connected to a larger central one, 
the workers freely entering all. The eggs and larvae were found abun¬ 
dantly in February at a depth of one inch, sparingly in July at a depth 
of nearly a foot. The workers emit an unpleasant odour; they visit 
aphids, coccids, membracids, etc., the glands of Cassia orientalis, and 
also carry off dead insects. 
Camponotince .—Pedicel with one joint. No definite sting, the poison 
being ejected from the orifice at the apex of the abdomen. Oecophytta 
smaragdina is the familiar red tree 
ant of India, which makes large 
nests in trees, often enclosing mealy 
bugs in a covering of webbed leaves. 
The green females are found yearly 
in June starting fresh nests on plants, 
and these nests can be easily obser¬ 
ved from the commencement. The 
workers are very active and fierce, 
collecting all manner of dead insects 
and even living ones if these are in¬ 
active ; caterpillars are attacked, cut 
up and carried off to the nest in 
pieces. A colony will have many 
small depots on one tree, each con¬ 
sisting of a number of leaves webbed jrig. 133.— -Oecophylla smaragdina 
together and containing a colony of worker. 
