ORDER VI. VEIN-WINGED INSECTS. 255 



secured from their voracious appetite, unless preserved in 

 tight bureaux or boxes of mahogany, which they do not at- 

 tack ; but furniture of pine or oak wood will be destroyed 

 by them in less than three months. 



Of their dangerous voracity in the tropics, and carnivor- 

 ous propensity, there are many strange but Avell authentica- 

 ted instances. Dionisio Carli, of Piacenza, Missionary in 

 Congo, Africa, was once sick in bed while there, when his 

 little pet ape suddenly jumped upon his head. He thought 

 that some rats had probably frightened the little animal, 

 and tried to tranquilize him, when several negroes shouted 

 to him to get up, because the ants had entered the house. 

 He was then obliged to be carried into the garden in order 

 to save his life, for the ants had already commenced crawl- 

 ing on his feet, and the floor of the room was covered Avith 

 them to the height of one foot. Those ants, he relates, 

 ate up every living object within their reach ; and of one 

 cow, which was accidentally left over night in the stable 

 through which they passed, nothing but the bones were 

 found the next morning. 



The Visiting Ants {Foivnka cephalotes), which inhabit 

 the tropics of America, are not less destructive in their rav- 

 ages, although not as dangerous as the African species. 

 They are as large as a common wasp, and chestnut colored. 

 Once every year they issue from their subterranean abodes 

 in innumerable swarms, enter the houses, run through all 

 the rooms, and kill all the large and small insects that are 

 to be found therein — such as scorpions, centipedes, spiders, 

 as well as lizards and toads. Not only these small ani- 

 mals, but even the human inhabitants of the houses, are 

 obliged to flee before them ; and yet they are quite welcome, 

 and are not disturbed in their progress, for these ants thor- 

 oughly clean a house of all vermin, and as soon as they 

 have accomplished this they leave it for another dwelling, 

 through which they pass in the same manner. The insects, 



