NATURE AS AN ORGANISM 



How many creatures find a safe refuge in the nest of the Leaf- 

 cutting Ant, including some that have no deahngs of any kind with 

 the ants ! I once found, in such a nest, three Kalangu Hzards, three 

 narrow-mouthed frogs, one other frog, various beetles, and one 

 coral snake of a non-venomous species. In Ceylon I always found, 

 in the air-shafts of the termitaries, the black scorpions of the country, 

 large as crayfish, and millipedes ; and if I searched several termi- 

 taries I could always be sure of finding the Spectacled Snake. 



Even the voracity of the Rosy Caterpillar, which turns the con- 

 tents of the cotton-pod into a black pulp, provides many living 

 creatures with a lodging. Three small beetles make their home 

 there; the larva of a fly feeds on the pasty contents, full of the 

 droppings of the caterpillar, and also the caterpillars of another 

 species of moth. These creatures may be of service to the planter, 

 inasmuch as they eat the food of the Rosy Caterpillar, which is 

 obliged to leave the pod for another, and on the way may be seized 

 by one of its enemies. The little black Cotton-bug, which likewise 

 makes its appearance in the pods of the cotton-plant, sucks the sap 

 of even the healthy pods, and multiplies to such an extent that the 

 cotton-field emits a far-reaching and most disagreeable odour of bugs. 



The relationships of which I have just been speaking afTect not 

 only the problem of domicile, for in them the food problem is an 

 essential factor. Now the problem of nourishment must not be 

 ignored in a chapter dealing with "Nature as an Organism," for 

 almost more plainly than by its distribution in space, the living 

 creature shows, by the choice of nourishment, that it is subject to 

 the influence of a great whole. We can understand that the food 

 supply must be most carefully apportioned. Otherwise all creatures 

 would fall upon the best food, or the easiest to reach, or would be 

 guided by mere chance. But then one area would soon be eaten 

 bare, and later comers, or offspring subsequently hatched from eggs, 

 would go hungry, while elsewhere food would be piling itself up 

 untouched. 



Therefore the Morpho butterflies lay their eggs, according to 

 their species, either on the forest trees or on the climbing plants that 

 twine around them. Where the passion-flower climbs upwards at 

 the edge of the forest the black, red and yellow Heliconidae appear ; 

 the great Caligo, with the owl's eyes on the under side of its wings, 

 makes for the banana; and the Brassolis astyra, a handsome dark 



