THE MYRMICA. 211 



these ants into a genus, and asserts that they make slaves of 

 other kinds of Myrniica, and employ them as workers. There 

 appears to be some confusion about the proper name of some of 

 the large ants of America, but nevertheless these insects are 

 known by popular terms ; and one, which is called the Travelling 

 Ant, and which lives in Brazil, does some good, and at the 

 same time a great deal of mischief. One kind, Acadonia cepha- 

 lotes, is known by the great size of its workers, which have an 

 enormous head and spine behind, and a tuberculated thorax, the 

 whole insect being of a blackish-brown colour ; the female, how- 

 ever, although very large and of a brown colour, has an ordinary 

 sized head. These ants unite in immense numbers, and travel 

 long distances, and suddenly appear in houses, and destroy beetles, 

 rats, and all the disagreeable things that collect in tropical habi- 

 tations. They make their nests with leaves, and Mr. Lund says he 

 was once passing near to a tree, the foliage of which was perfect, 

 when he was surprised by the leaves falling off it like so much 

 rain, although there was no wind ; he went to look at the cause of 

 this strange phenomenon, and found an ant working away with all 

 its energies upon each leaf stalk. The stalk was soon cut through, 

 and the leaf fell to the ground. There was a most curious 

 scene going on, however, at the foot of the tree, for the ground 

 was covered with ants, which were cutting the leaves in little bits as 

 soon as they fell down. In less than an hour the tree was stripped 

 of its foliage, the leaves were cut up, and their pieces carried off. 



The Driver Ants of West Africa are stated by Dr. Baird to 

 have no permanent dwellings, as other ants have, but to range 

 about in vast armies in quest of prey. They make their excur- 

 sions during the night or in very cloudy weather, the hot rays 

 of the sun being fatal to them. If obliged to march during 

 the day they construct underground arches of clay cemented 

 by a fluid secreted from the mouth, and under these arches the 

 pupae and the prey are carried by the workers. If on their 

 march they are intercepted by a stream of water it is said that 

 they throw across it a bridge of their own bodies, over which the 

 main column marches with freedom and safety. It is to be hoped 

 that if this is true the obliging bridge makers can swim. The 

 community is divided into three classes, soldiers to attack ^nd 



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