ANENT ANTS. 



265 



trated upon it. The excited creatui-es searcli every cranny, and tear 

 in pieces all the grubs they bring to light. They attack wasps'-nests, 

 when built on low shrubs, gnawing away the paper covering to get at 

 the larvas, pupre, and newly-hatched wasps, and cut every thing to tat- 

 ters, regardless of the infuriated owners which are flying about them. 



Fig. 4. Fokaging-Ants (Edton drepanophara). 



The life of the Ecitons is not all work, however; they seem fre- 

 quently to be employed in a way that looks like recreation. This 

 always takes place in a sunny nook. The main column of the army 

 and the branch columns are in their ordinary relative positions ; but, 

 instead of pressing forward eagerly and plundering right and left, 

 they seem to be smitten with a sudden fit of laziness. Some walk 

 slowly about ; others brush their antennse with their fore-feet ; but the 

 drollest sight is their cleaning one another. Here and there an ant 

 may be seen, stretching forth first one leg and then another, to be 

 brushed and washed by one or more of its comrades, who perform the 

 task by passing the limb between the jaws and the tongue, finishing 

 by giving the antennoe a friendly wipe. It is a curious spectacle, 

 and well calculated to increase one's amazement at the similarity be- 

 tAveen the actions of ants and the acts of rational beings a similarity 

 which must have been brought about by difierent processes of devel- 

 opment of the primary qualities of mind. The action of these ants 

 looks like simple indulgence in idle amusement. Have these little 

 creatures, then, an excess of energy, and do they expend it in mere 

 sportiveness, like young kittens, or in idle whims, like rational beings? 



EciTOX Pejedatoe. This species differs from other Ecitons^ chiefly 

 from its habit of hunting, not in columns, but in dense phalanxes con- 

 sisting of myriads of individuals. A j^halanx, when passing over 

 smooth ground, occupies a space from four to six yards square. Noth- 

 ing in insect-movements is more striking than this rapid march of 

 these large compact bodies. 



Bund Ecitons. None of the foregoing kinds have eyes of the 



