ANENT ANTS. 263 



ever seen on the line e, and no yellow one ever approaclies the line a. 

 each keeping his own station, and following his given line of duty 

 with a steadfastness which is remarkable. 



When the course of the galleries is traced from the entrances, a 

 small excavation is reached, across which is stretched, in the form of 

 a spider's web, a net-work of squares about one-quarter inch across, 

 the ends of the web being fastened firmly to the earth of the sides of 

 the cell. In each one of the squares, supported by the web, sits one 

 of the honey-making workers prisoners, for locomotion is impossible, 

 the distended abdomen which constitutes the honey-bag being at least 

 twenty times as large as the rest of the body. The workers provide 

 them a constant supply of flowers and pollen, which, by a process 

 analogous to that of the bee, they convert into honey. Whether the 

 honey-makers are themselves used as food, or excrete their saccharine 

 fluid, and then proceed to distill more, is not known. Indeed, that 

 the remainder of the inhabitants feed on the supply thus obtained in 

 any mannei", although surmised, has not been established, very little 

 being known of the economy of these creatures. 



The honey is much sought after by the Mexicans, who not only 

 use it as a delicate article of food, but ascribe to it great healing 

 propei'ties. 



The worst insect pest of tropical America is the terrible tire-ant 

 {Myrmica scevissima), whose sting is likened to the puncture of a red- 

 hot needle. It is found only on sandy soils in open places, and seems 

 to thrive most near houses and in weedy villages. Towns are some- 

 times deserted on account of this little tormentor. It is a small spe- 

 cies, of a shining red color, not greatly differing from the common red 

 stinging-ant of our own country, except that the pain and irritation 

 caused by its sting are much greater. Where it abounds, the whole 

 soil is undermined by it ; the ground is perforated with the entrances 

 to their subterranean galleries, and a little sandy dome occurs here 

 and there where the insects bring their young to receive warmth near 

 the surface. Homes 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 have to be suspended in baskets from the 

 rafters, and the cords well soaked with copaiba-balsam, which is the 

 only means known to prevent them from climbing. They seem to 

 attack persons out of sheer malice. The legs of tables, chairs, and 

 stools, and the cords of hammocks, have to be smeared in the same 

 way. 



Belonging to a totally different group are the. Ecitons^ or foraging- 

 ants ; they are carnivorous, and hunt in vast armies, exciting terror 

 wherever they go, resembling in their habits the . often-described 

 drivers of tropical Africa, though belonging to quite another sub- 

 group of the ant tribe. They are composed, besides males and fe- 

 males, of two classes of workers a large-headed and a small-headed 



