A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



although the Secretary of State assured me that if I could discover 

 a means of exterminating the Sauvas I should soon be a millionaire. 

 Hitherto no such means has been discovered. Gassing the nest, or 

 pouring carbon disulphide into it, never kills more than a portion 

 of the widespread community ; moreover, the clever insects immedi- 

 ately block their galleries, or even build a second nest, to which they 

 retire with their brood and their fungus-beds, having first cut these 

 latter into little pieces. During such removals observers have noted 

 with astonishment that on reaching the top of a little elevation the 

 insects have allowed their burdens to roll down the slope, to be caught 



by other workers, thereby accelerating 

 the speed of the removal. 



Terrible damage is done by the 

 Sauvas. Many a planter has had 

 reason to despair who one day has 



Fig. 29.— Soldier of the Driver looked with Satisfaction on a freshly- 

 Ant, Eciton Burchelli (slightly 1^1 r ^ j ^1 



enlarged) planted nursery 01 trees, and on the 



following morning has found only 



bare stems. One can hardly hope to console him by the statement 



that the destroyers of his plantation are among the most wonderful 



creatures on earth ! 



Even the smallest of creatures becomes powerful when it combines 

 with its fellows, and when all are inspired by a common will. One 

 can find no better evidence of this truth than a second extraordinary 

 Brazilian ant. In the depths of the forest, in the State of Pernambuco, 

 I first made acquaintance with the Driver or Migratory Ant, which 

 the Indians call Taoca, and the entomologists Eciton. Like a running 

 brook, a yellow flood of insects tumbled over the ground, now surg- 

 ing over the stones, now disappearing in the shadow of the Bauhinia 

 leaves. Even Edysio, the valiant student of whom I have already 

 spoken, fled from the neighbourhood of these ants, whose bite burns 

 like fire. And indeed, if one examines the soldiers of the Taocas, 

 one is thoroughly startled by the unexpected sight of two hooks, 

 as sharp as needles, and despite their slenderness, as soHd as steel 

 (Fig. 29). These tweezers, these curved tongs, are longer than the 

 insect's head. The workers have smaller pincers, and as in the case 

 of the Sauvas, there are workers of different sizes. There are many 

 species of Migratory Ant ; among them are some which have small 

 eye-spots only, while others are completely blind, or rather, eyeless. 

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