Prof. 0. Heer on the House Ant of Madeira, 221 



(Formica), which pupa-cases with us are falsely called ants' eggs. 

 The soldiers are met with in the nests in proportionally greater 

 numbers than outside ; they appear therefore to be provided 

 for the work within the nest and its defence, whilst the labourers 

 procure food and take care of the young. At least it is these 

 which carry away the pupse when the nest is disturbed. That 

 the soldiers however go out also with the labourers, and are 

 serviceable to them in their operations on the treasures they dis- 

 cover, has already been mentioned. Lacordaire (Introduction 

 a PEntomologie, ii. 498) relates of the Train-ant* {(Ecodoma 

 cephalotes, Latr.) of Bengal, that the soldiers accompany the 

 trains, without mixing with the mass of the army. Stationed 

 at the sides of the column, they are to be seen marching for- 

 wards, then again turning back to an earlier occupied post, 

 halting a moment to see the train file past, and running hastily 

 up and down, especially if a stoppage anywhere occurs, and 

 their help be necessary. Nay, they will often, as Lacordaire 

 relates, climb up the plants near the train, station themselves on 

 the edges of the leaves, and from this elevated post inspect the 

 train of their troops. In our Madeiran ants the soldiers play 

 no such prominent part, always marching along in the same 

 rank and file as the labourers. 



All that we have said above relates to one kind of ant only, 

 the (Ecophthora pusilla -J but in hot countries there are whole 

 numbers of species which have similar habits, and which come 

 into hostile collision with man. In Brazil this is so much the 

 case, that the inhabitants there say, " The ants are the queens 

 of Brazil, for they have the most power in the country." One of 

 the largest and most dangerous kinds, which is spread over the 

 whole of tropical America, continental as well as insular (e. g. 

 Cuba, from whence we have specimens), is the Train-ant [(Eco- 

 doma cephalotes, Latr.). The female is bigger than our hive-bee ; 

 the labourers about twice as big as those of our red wood-ant. 

 It lives in very populous colonies in the ground, into which they 

 dig their dwellings, sometimes nine feet deep. It marches in 

 great regular trains, and on its course strips bare of leaves, often 

 in a short time, trees and shrubs. Rengger relates of the Isau 

 ant (which I do not consider different from the train-ant f), that 

 in one night many millions, inhabitants of a single nest, levelled 

 to the ground whole plantations of manioc, maize, potatoes, 

 melons, garden-stuff, &c. Having rapidly ascended the plants 

 which they intend to plunder, they place themselves at the 



* Visitor-ant, Angl. — Tr. 



t From specimens seen by me in Rengger's Collection. 



