THE AMAZONS. . 479 



had first scented them, but had again decamped and were now detected. 

 The amazons pounced upon the disheartened band, part of which scat- 

 tered in all directions with a few of the larvae. Many, however, stood 

 their ground resolutely and attacked the invaders. These lashed them- 

 selves into a kind of fury, pierced the heads and thoraces of the snbtc- 

 nescens with their sickle-shaped jaws and strewed the leaves with their 

 jet-black corpses. There were very few larvae and pupae to take home, 

 but many of the amazons seized uninjured subcenescens and joined 

 the ranks of the homeward bound procession. They moved back in 

 a long, loose file, very unlike the compact troop on its outward journey, 

 and over a different path. They arrived at their nest by 2.35 P. M. 

 The whole foray had taken little more than an hour and only a quarter 

 of this time had been spent in pillaging the temporary subcenescens nest. 



July 30. I remained in the vicinity of the bicolor nest from i.io 

 to 4.30 P. M., but there was no sortie, although the weather was 

 propitious. 



July 31. There was no sortie, but I stayed near the nest and made 

 the following observations: At 2 P. M. a single amazon left the branch 

 and by her apparent determination arrested my attention. She hurried 

 on in a southeasterly direction over a rather irregular course, making 

 short excursions to the right and left, and exploring every hole and 

 cavity in the ground and under the dead leaves. I followed her for 

 a distance of nearly 25 m. to a pile of dead leaves heaped about the 

 base of an old stump. Here she slipped out of sight. After waiting 

 some minutes for her to reappear, I removed the leaves and found, a 

 few cm. from the spot where I had lost sight of her, a large subcenescens 

 nest containing many larvae and pupae. The galleries ran under the 

 dead leaves and up into the stump. This nest had evidently not been 

 pillaged during the course of the summer, and I inferred that the 

 amazon was a scout that had succeeded in locating a treasure. She 

 failed to reappear and must have returned to her nest unnoticed. 

 About half an hour later another amazon left the nest in the branch 

 and made off in a direction at a right angle to the first. She went 

 about 2 m. in one direction, then turned abruptly and continued 2.3 

 m. in another direction to a large rotten stump surrounded by dead 

 leaves. Like the first scout she slipped under the leaves and failed to 

 reappear. As several subcenescens were running about on the stump, 

 there must have been a nest in the immediate neighborhood, but I 

 failed to find it. After watching the amazon nest for some time longer 

 without observing any further developments, I went home. 



August i. On reaching the bicolor nest at i.io P. M. I noticed no 

 unusual activity. A few of the amazons and slaves emerged from time 



