THE DRIl'IiR ./.YD LEGIONARY ANTS. 



2 57 



grasshoppers and spiders. The pursued insects would rapidly make 

 oft", but many, in their confusion and terror, would bound right into 

 the midst of the main body of ants. . . . The greatest catch of the 

 ants was, however, when they got amongst some fallen brushwood. 

 The cockroaches, spiders and other%nsects, instead of running right 

 away, would ascend the fallen branches and remain there, whilst the 

 host of ants were occupying 

 all the ground below. By 

 and by up would come some 

 of the ants, following every 

 branch, and driving before 

 them their prey to the ends 

 of the small twigs, when noth- 

 ing remained for them but to 

 leap, and they would alight in 

 the very midst of their foes, 

 with the result of being cer- 

 tainly caught and pulled to 

 pieces. Many of the spiders 

 would escape by hanging sus- 

 pended by a thread of silk 

 from the branches, safe from 

 the foes that swarmed both 

 above and below." 



In regard to another spe- 

 cies, E. hanmtum, which has 

 large, light-colored soldiers 

 with very Jong hook-shaped 

 jaws (Fig. 3(7), Belt says: " I 

 think Eciton hainata does not 

 stay more than four or five 

 days in one place. I have 

 sometimes come across the 

 migratory columns. They 

 may easily be known by all 

 the common workers moving in one direction, many of them carrying 

 the larvae and pupse carefully in their jaws. Here and there one of 

 the light-colored officers moves backwards and forwards directing the 

 columns. Such a column is of enormous length, and contains many 

 thousands, if not millions, of individuals. I have sometimes followed 

 them up for two or three hundred yards without getting to the end." 



Belt succeeded in finding the temporary nest of an army of these 



18 



FIG. 146. Eciton esenbecki. (Original.) a, 

 Male in profile ; b, dorsal aspect of head. 



