ANTS PROTECTING TKEES. 57 



come, because unprofitable, visits of creeping insects, 

 by diverting them from the flowers. 



Thus, then, though ants have not influenced the 

 present condition of the vegetable kingdom to the 

 same extent as bees, they have also had a very con- 

 siderable effect upon it in various ways. 



Our European ants do not strip plants of their 

 leaves. In the tropics, on the contrary, some species 

 do much damage in this manner. 



Bates considers' that the leaves are used ' to thatch 

 the domes which cover the entrances to their sub- 

 terranean dwellings, thereby protecting them from 

 the rains.' Belt, on the other hand, maintains that 

 they are torn up into minute fragments, so as to form 

 a flocculent mass, which serves as a bed for mush- 

 rooms ; the ants are, in fact, he says, ' mushroom 

 growers and eaters.' ^ 



Some trees are protected by one species of ants 

 from others. A species of Acacia, described by Belt, 

 bears hollow thorns, while each leaflet produces honey 

 in a crater-formed gland at the base, as well as a small, 

 sweet, pear-shaped body at the tip. In consequence, it is 

 inhabited by myriads of a small ant, which nests in the 

 hollow thorns, and thus finds meat, drink, and lodging 

 all provided for it. These ants are continually roaming 

 over the plant ; and constitute a most efficient body- 

 guard, not only driving off the leaf-cutting ants, but, 

 in Belt's opinion, rendering the leaves less liable to be 



■ Loc. cit., V. i. p. 26. '^ Loc. cit., p. 79. 



