144 



WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER. 



Throughout the day the colony showed no essential change. 

 It seemed very probable that the queen was concealed somewhere 

 in the cluster, and although my enthusiastic young friend, Dr. 

 Richter, wished to keep the colony under observation for several 

 days, if possible, my arguments, inspired by fear that it might 

 decamp during the night and disappear in the jungle and a desire 



FIG. 4. Soldier and small worker of Eciton hamatum Fabr. 



Dr. David Fairchild. 



Photograph by 



to secure the unknown female and any guests, or ecitophiles that 

 the mass might contain, eventually convinced him and my other 

 companions, Mr. Nathan Banks, Dr. David Fairchild, his son 

 Graham, and Mr. Frederick Burgess that it would be advisable to 

 kill the whole mass and sort it over carefully at our leisure. The 

 opportunity was, indeed, exceptional, because bivouacking 

 colonies of army ants are rarely seen and when one is encountered 

 it is almost always in some inaccessible place, in or under a large 

 log, in a hollow tree-trunk or a hole in the ground. The de- 

 struction of the colony, however, seemed to be a serious matter, 

 both because it involved eliminating one of possibly only a few 



