TROPICAL NATURE IN COLOMBIA 



295 



active too, and we often flashed the light on one of them, hunting in 

 the night. 



Under fallen logs we found an admirable hunting ground for various 

 invertebrates. Land crabs were often unearthed at considerable dis- 

 tances from the water. Centipeds of all sizes were abundant, some of 

 them twelve to thirteen inches in length. Many millipeds and centipeds 

 were found in their little nests where they lay eggs and rear young. 

 Some of these nests were simple hollows in the soft pulp of rotting logs, 

 others were carefully made dome-like structures formed from little pel- 

 lets of mud. But the greatest find under fallen logs was the curious 

 Peripatus, a primitive arthropod which resembles the segmented worms 

 in many characteristics. These beautiful velvety animals glide slowly 

 along, feeling their way with the two antennae at the anterior end. If 

 touched, they turn about and squirt two viscid threads from beneath the 

 head. These threads, which harden quickly, serve to capture prey or 

 entangle aggressors. 



Termites were abundant in dry places everywhere up to an altitude of 

 about 5,000 feet. They never come out into the light, but always con- 

 struct covered galleries of wood-dust, dirt, excrement, etc., wherever they 

 go. Some species live in the ground and build great mounds over old 

 stumps and logs ; others make mud nests on tree trunks from which they 

 build galleries in various directions. These insects live in great colonies 

 in which there are usually several enormous egg-laying queens and thou- 

 sands of workers and soldiers. They eat away a piece of wood so that 

 the interior is converted into a powder while the exterior is perfect. A 

 log is thus reduced to a thin shell which crumbles at a touch. 



Probably the most characteristic and interesting animals in tropical 







. 



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Tekmite Nests in* a Field. 



