Leaf- cutter Ants 107 



share shelter with their hosts and yield food to them 

 in response to quaintly urgent massage. Beetle, tree, 

 mealy bug — a triple alliance. 



In his Edge of the Jungle, Mr. William Beebe has 

 recently given a vivid picture of the habits of the leaf- 

 cutting ants, and verified an interesting linkage. 

 When he took a pickaxe and broke into the under- 

 ground city of the ants, into which they carry the 

 semi-circles of leaf dexterously cut off from the 

 branches, he disclosed a remarkable sight. For he 

 saw hordes of worker-ants chewing at the leaves that 

 had been brought in and making them into a green 

 paste, which is the culture-medium for a particular 

 kind of fungus not known elsewhere. This forms the 

 sole food of the ants as long as they are beneath the 

 ground. But there are wheels within wheels, for when 

 a queen-ant leaves the community and rises high in 

 the air on her nuptial flight, she takes with her a 

 minute pill of the fungus, carrying it in a depression 

 beneath her mouth. Eventually, she comes to earth 

 again, settles down to maternity, and has a family of 

 workers. When they are strong enough and numerous 

 enough they bring in segments of leaves and begin to 

 make the green paste ; then the queen takes the fun- 

 gus-pill from beneath her mouth, where it has been 

 safely kept all this time, and starts a new culture. 

 The story is almost too good to be true, but it is well 

 documented. Animate Nature becomes subtler under 

 our eyes. 



We must not linger over this seductive section of 

 our subject, but a final illustration may be permitted. 



