32 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



Photo by] [A. E. Tonge, F.E.S. 



Orange-tip Butterfly. 



The full-grown caterpillar is here feeding upon the seed-pods of 

 the hedge-mustard. Its form and coloration are such that it 

 appears to be part of the pod. Slightly enlarged. 



Plioto by] [A. K. Tongc, F.E.S. 



Orange-tip Butterfly. 



The caterpillar has here changed into th(' remarkably slender 

 green chrysalis, whose attachment to the stem is such as to sug- 

 gest to the eye that it is part of tlie plant. Shghtly enlarged. 



fungus produced mushrooms six inches 

 across ; but the ants do not permit of 

 such development. As soon as the 

 mushroom " buttons " are formed in 

 miniature they are cut off. 



Such a method of cultivation adopted 

 by Insects must not be dismissed as a 

 mere curiosity of natural history. The 

 process is so complicated that it implies 

 a much higher order of intelligence than 

 is usually allowed to Insects by our 

 philosophy ; for the saiibas laboriously 

 collect green leaves which are not their 

 food and carefully prepare them in 

 order that the}^ niay support a crop 

 that may be used by them. This is 

 something very different from merely 

 storing grain, and is worthy of being 

 pondered. 



Bates says "the underground abodes 

 of this wonderful ant are known to be 

 very extensive. The Rev. Hamlet Clark 

 has related that the saiiba of Rio de 

 Janeiro,^ a species closely related to ours 

 [that is, the Amazon species], has 

 excavated a tunnel under the bed of the 

 river Parahyba, at a place where it is as 

 broad as the Thames at London Bridge." 



Alfred Moller, who went out to 

 Blumenau, in South Brazil, specially to 

 study these ants, has described similar 

 fungus - growing habits in two other 

 species ^ of Atta. They make covered 

 ways, nearly thirty yards long and about 

 half an inch broad, leading from their 

 nest to the plants known as cupheas, 

 both in the forest and in the open 

 country. They climb up the stems of the 

 cuphea, and an ant starts at the edge of 

 a leaf, and in live minutes cuts out a 

 piece. When this has been cut almost 

 completely, the ant moves off it to the 

 main portion of the leaf, cuts tlirougli the 



1 Atta scxdentata. 



- A. discigera and A. hystrix. 



