286 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



covered, produced a titillation more intolerable than 

 pain, except it is increased to great violence."* 



The species called sugar-ants in the West Indies 

 are particularly destructive to the sugar cane, as well 

 to lime, lemon, and orange-trees, by excavating 

 their nests at the roots, and so loosening the earth 

 that they are frequently uprooted and blown down 

 by the winds. If this does not happen, the roots are 

 deprived of due nourishment, and the plants become 

 sickly and die.t 



* Hawkesworth's Account of Cook's First Voyage, 

 t PhjI. Trans., xxx., p. 346. 



