262 



ANTS. 



rainy season, and almost always during the night. The expeditionary 

 army penetrates the habitation which it proposes to visit at many points 

 at once, and for this purpose divides itself into many columns of 

 attack. One is apprised very >oon of their arrival by the household 

 commotion among the parasitic animals. The rats (Mits tcctoruun, 

 the spiders, the cockroaches (Periplaneta australusicc Fab.'), abandon 

 their retreat> and seek to escape from the attacks of the ants by flight. 



FIG. 149. Castes of Lcptanilla. a. L. niinuscnla. male; b. head: c, copulatory 

 organs of same. (Santschi.) d, L. rci'elieri, dichthadiiform female, dorsal view; c, 

 same in profile: /, worker. (Emery.) 



Alimentary substances the soldados hold in no esteem, and they disdain 

 even sugary things, to which the ants in general are so partial. Dead 

 insects even do not seem to invite their covetousness. It has often 

 happened to me to be obliged to abandon my abode, without having 

 time to carry away my collection, to which they have never done the 

 least injury. The trouble occasioned by these insects in entering 

 houses is more than compensated by the expeditious manner in which 

 they purge them of vermin, and in this view their visit is an actual 

 benefit.' 



