FOKAGING ANTS. 439 



varying in size from, the largest soldier to tlie smallest worker, 

 which is no larger than our Red Ant. 



Mr. Bates gives a very graphic account of this insect and its 

 predatory excursions. He states that a column of Foraging 

 Ants is of very great length. One column that he saw must 

 have been at least a hundred yards in length, because the 

 portion that was visible was from sixty to seventy yards in 

 length, and neither end of the column could be seen. 



" The large-headed individuals were in proportion of about 

 five in one hundred to the small individuals, but not one of 

 them carried anything in its mandibles ; they were all trotting 

 along outside the column, and distributed in regular proportions 

 throughout the whole line of array, their globular white heads 

 rendering them very conspicuous among the rest, bobbing up 

 and down as they traversed the inequalities of the road. 



" The progress of these Ants is not in one simple line when 

 on a foraging expedition, but a line with many branches ; a 

 column is occasionally pushed out in the direction of some 

 promising locality. I once observed one of these terminating 

 at a decayed fallen tree. The Ants were busy about it, a few 

 having seized some large Formicidse, and also some soft-bodied 

 wasps. These they tore in pieces and divided the load; the 

 whole party then retired, and re-entered the main line. A 

 branch column is not a party separated from the rest — there 

 is no break in the lines of the Ants — but there is always 

 a number passing and re-passing, keeping up the line of 

 communication." 



Mr. Bates gives also an account of another species, Eciton 

 froedator :■ — ■ 



"This species of Eciton differs from all the others in its 

 habits : instead of foraging in narrow columns, it hunts iii 

 dense masses of myriads of individuals. Nothing in ento- 

 mology is more curious than to watch the vast compact body 

 moving rapidly along ; when they pass, all the rest of the insect 

 world is in agitation and alarm. They stream along the ground, 

 and climb to the summit of all the lower trees, searching every 

 leaf to its apex. When they come to a mass of decaying vege- 

 table matter, they cover it with a living crowd, penetrating 

 every chink and cranny ; then leave it, and rapidly move on. 



"All apterous insects, especially fat spiders and larvje of 



