250 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



titillation more intolerable than pain, except it is increased 

 to great violence."* 



The species called sngar-ants in the West Indies are 

 particularly destructive to the sugar-cane, as well as to 

 lime, lemon, and orange-trees, by excavating their nests 

 at the roots, and so loosening the earth that they are fre- 

 quently uprooted and blown down by the winds. If this 

 does not happen, the roots are deprived of due nourish- 

 ment, and the plants become sickly and die.f 



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

 t Phil. Trans., xxx., p. 346. 



