824 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



abstractincT an individual from it. "News of the disturbance was 

 quickly communicated to a distance of several yards to the rear, and 

 the column at that point commenced retreating." It was also this 

 species that the same naturalist describes as enjoying periods of leisure 

 and recreation when they call a halt in " the sunny nooks of the for- 

 est." On such occasions, 



the main column of the army and the branch columns were in their ordinary 

 relative positions; but, instead of pressing forward eagerly and pliimlering right 

 and left, they seemed to have been all smitten with a sudden fit of laziness. 

 Some were walking slowly about, others were brushing their antennae with 

 their forefeet ; but the drollest sight was their cleaning each other. ... It is 

 probable that these hours of relaxation and cleansing may be indispensable to 

 the effective performance of their harder burdens ; but, while looking at them, 

 the conclusion that they were engaged merely in play was irresistible. 



E. prmdator differs from the others of its genus in not hunting 

 in columns, but " in dense phalanxes consisting of myriads of indi- 

 viduals." 



Is'othing (says Bates) in insect movements is more striking than the rapid 

 march of these large and compact bodies. Wherever they pass, all the rest of 

 the animal world is thrown into a state of alarm. They stream along the 

 ground and climb to the summit of all the lower trees, searching every leaf to 

 its apex, and, whenever they encounter a mass of decaying vegetable matter 

 where booty is plentiful, they concentrate, like other Ecitons, all their forces 

 upon it, the dense phalanx of shining and quickly-moving bodies, as it spreads 

 over the surface, looking like a flood of dark-red liquid. They soon penetrate 

 every part of tbe confused heap, and then, gathering together again in marching 

 order, onward they move. 



A phalanx occupies from four to six square yards of ground, and the 

 ants composing it do not move "altogether in one straightforward 

 direction, but in variously spreading contiguous columns, now sepa- 

 rating a little from the general mass, now reuniting with it. The 

 margins of the phalanx spread out at times like a cloud of skirmishers 

 from the flanks of the main army." 



Two species of Eciton are totally blind, and the habits of these 

 differ from those above described in that they march exclusively under 

 covered roads or tunnels. The van of the column is constantly en- 

 gaged in rapidly constructing the tunnels through which the army or 

 regiment advances as quickly as they are made. Under the i^rotection 

 of these covered ways the ants travel at a surprising rate, and, when 

 they reach a rotten log or other promising hunting-ground, they pour 

 into all the crevices, etc., iii search of prey. Bates says : 



The blind Ecitons, working in numbers, build up simultaneously the sides of 

 their convex arcades, and contrive, in a wonderful manner, to approximate them 

 and fit in the key-stones without letting the loose, uncemented structure fall to 

 pieces. There was a very clear division of labor between the two classes of 

 neuters in these blind species. The large-headed class . . . act as soldiers, 



