CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE FUNGUS-GROWING ANTS. 



" Quoique dans 1'immense serie des etres, la fourmi ne soit qu'un point qui 

 sans sa mobilite echapperoit presque a nos regards, il n'en est pas moins vrai 

 que cot atome anime est digne d'etre 1'objet de nos meditations. C'est ici qu'il 

 conviont de dire que 1'Auteur de la nature n'est jamais plus lui-meme que dans 

 ce qu'il y a de plus petit." Latreille, " Histoire Naturelle des Fourmis," 1802. 



Although our examination, in the last chapter, of the relations 

 between ants and vascular plants has led us to doubt the existence of 

 a true symbiosis between these organisms and to interpret their rela- 

 tions as the result of a direct adaptation on the part of the ants, we are 

 compelled to admit that there is what may be called a true symbiosis 



FIG. 183. Worker 

 of Myrmicbcrypta brit- 

 toni of Porto Rico. 

 (Original.) 



FIG. 184. Worker of Serico- 

 niynue.r opacus of South Amer- 

 ica. (Original.) 



between ants and some of the lower plants. These ants all belong to 

 the Myrmicine tribe Attii, which is peculiar to tropical and subtropical 

 America, and the plants with which they are so intimately associated 

 are fungi. The association is symbiotic, because the fungi are provided 



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