OUR SIX-FOOTED RIVALS. 357 



and over them the ants watch with a wonderful care, defending them 

 from the attacks of birds, wasps, ichneumons, and other creatures, 

 who would rid the poor plant of its parasites. They have even been 

 known to build galleries of clay over the surface of a pine-apple, in 

 order to shelter the Cocci who were destroying the fruit. 



Mr. Belt found that a red passion-flower, which secretes honey 

 from glands on its young leaves and on the sepals of its flower-buds, 

 was carefully guarded by a certain species of ant (Pheidole), who 

 consumed the honey, and who furiously drove off all leaf-cutters and 

 other intruders. But, after a couple of seasons, a colony of parasitical 

 scale-insects, which secrete honey, established themselves upon the 

 passion-flower, to its great injury. The ants transferred their care 

 and attention to these, and, from the guardians of the plant, became 

 indirectly, but not the less substantially, its enemies. This is a strik- 

 ing proof of the untrustworthy character of our insect or, more 

 generally speaking, of our animal allies. At one moment they may 

 be defending our property from depredation, but on a slight change 

 of circumstances their interests may cease to coincide with our own, 

 and they may go over to our enemies. The question what animal 

 species we ought to protect and which to destroy, and how far we 

 ought to go in each case, becomes, on closer inspection, exceedingly 

 complicated. 



As an example of an omnivorous ant, we may take the " fire-ant" 

 of the Amazon, of which Mr. Bates gives us a striking account: 1 

 " Aveyros may be called the headquarters of the fire-ant, which might 

 be fittingly termed the scourge of this fine river. It is found only on 

 sandy soils, in open places, and seems to thrive more in the neighbor- 

 hood of houses and weedy villages, such as Aveyros; it does not 

 occur at all in the shades of the forest. Aveyros was deserted a few 

 years before my visit on account of this little tormentor, and the 

 inhabitants had only recently returned to their houses, thinking its 

 numbers had decreased. It is a small species, of a shining reddish 

 color, not greatly differing from the common stinging ant of our own 

 country {Myrmica rubra), except that the pain and irritation caused 

 by its sting are much greater. The soil of the whole village is under- 

 mined by it ; the ground is perforated with the entrances to their sub- 

 terranean galleries, and a little sandy dome occurs here and there, 

 where the insects bring their young to receive warmth near the sur- 

 face. The houses are overrun with them ; they dispute every frag- 

 ment of food with the inhabitants, and destroy clothing for the sake 

 of the starch. All eatables are obliged to be suspended in baskets 

 from the rafters, and the cords well soaked with copaiba-balsam, 

 which is the only means known of preventing them from climbing. 

 They seem to attack persons out of sheer malice. If we stood for a 

 few moments in the street, even at a distance from their nests, we 



1 " Naturalist on the River Amazon." 



