354 
ANT, 
This addiction to animal food in the insects of 
the genus Formica can hardly be said to be pro- 
ductive of any mischief in the European regions; 
but in various parts of America and the West- 
Indian islands the ravages committed by ants are 
incredible. One of the chief of these destroyers 
is the Formica omnveora of Linnaeus, a very small 
species of a brown or chesnut colour: it is ex- 
tremely voracious, attacking every animal sub- 
stance to Avhich it can gain access. It occurs in 
various parts of Africa as well as in America and 
the West Indies, and it is*said to be so numerous 
in some districts, that a deer, hog. See. being killed 
and left on the ground by night, will by the next 
morning hav^ the flesh entirely cleared from the 
bones, and be reduced to a complete skeleton. 
