2 9 8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



In a Banana Plantation. Each tree is cut down when its single hunch of fruit 



is harvested, but new sprouts grow up from the root, ."".no, hunches of bananas are 



shipped from Santa Malta each month for New York. 



enormous recurved mandibles. Like the drivers, these ants carry all 

 their impedimenta with them. Those we observed always traveled in 

 narrow columns which flowed ahead like living streamlets, branching out 

 and reuniting over and over again. Foragers always appear to be in 

 great haste and go scuttling along carrying pupae, larva?, pieces of dis- 

 membered insects, spoil from the nests of other species of ants, etc. We 

 saw some foragers form long covered lanes with their bodies by clinging 

 to each other with their mandibles and legs. Through these covered 

 roads other individuals of the swarm scooted along — these were robhers 

 carrying booty from the nests of other ants. 



A Bromeliad. 



