116 HYMENOPTERA. 



having five in the air at once, and putting them down wherever 

 there was a clear space. Another insect which escaped was a 

 green leaf-like locust, which remained absohitely immoveable, and 

 though many ants ran over its legs, they did not perceive that it 

 was an insect. These ants, however, hunt by touch and smell 

 rather than by sight, their eyes being very imperfect. Some idea 

 of their numbers may be formed from Mr. H. W. Bates having 

 once observed a dense column of a species of Ecitoii on the march 

 through the forests of the Amazon, which column extended sixty 

 or seventy yards, without any indication of either the van or the 

 rear of the army. 



We will now consider the third and last family of the Ants, 

 the Myrmidnce, to which the genus Eciton, as already mentioned, 

 belongs. Probably the most troublesome of our British ants is the 

 little yellow House Ant, Diplorhojptrum Molestum, Say. Fifty years 

 ago it Avas almost unknown in England, but it is now abundant in 

 houses in most of our large towns, more especially in London. 

 Mr. F. Smith considers that it is a Brazilian species, for the Rev. 

 H. Clark found it very annoying at Rio Janeiro : " everywhere, — 

 in-doors, out of doors, and upon everything." It appears to have 

 been introduced into North America (where it was first described) 

 a few years before it appeared in London. If the nests are acces- 

 sible, which is not often the case, they may be destroyed with 

 boiling water ; and washing with a solution of carbolic acid will 

 also go far to check their ravages. The number of the ants may be 

 much reduced by laying down pieces of liver in places where they 

 abound, which may be plunged into boiling water at intervals, the 

 ants shaken off, and then laid down again. Another method 

 suggested by Dr. Murie, formerly Librarian to the Linnean 

 Society, seems likely to answer still better than the liver. 

 This is to put a sponge into sugar and water, and when the ants 

 have covered and permeated it, to rinse it with boiling water, 

 dip it again into the syrup, and replace it. 



The genus Crematogaster, Lund, builds its nest in trees ; C. 

 Ivflatus, Smith, which occurs in Borneo and Malacca, has been 

 already mentioned as a honey-ant. 



At the beginning of the present century it was warmly 

 debated among entomologists whether ants ever store up grain, as 

 asserted by various ancient writers. As nothing of the kind has 

 been observed in Northern Europe, it was hastily concluded (from 

 a prejudice that we have not yet quite outgrown, that the ancients 



