THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 57 



The pursued insects would rapidly make off, but many in their 

 confusion and terror would bound right into the midst of the 

 main body of ants. At first tlie grasshopper, when it found 

 itself in the midst of its enemies, would give vigorous leaps, 

 with perhaps two or three of the ants clinging to its legs ; then 

 it would stop a moment to rest, and that moment would be 

 fatal, for the tiny foes would swarm over the prey ; and after 

 a few more ineffectual struggles it would succumb to its fate, 

 and soon be bitten to pieces and carried off to the rear. The 

 greatest catch of the ants was, however, when they got 

 amongst some fallen brushwood : the cockroaches, spiders, 

 and other insects, instead of running right away, would 

 ascend the fallen branches and remain there, whilst the host 

 of ants were occupying all the ground below. By and bye up 

 would come some of the ants, following every branch, and 

 driving before them their prey to the ends of the small twigs, 

 when nothing remained for them but to leap, and they would 

 alight in the very throng of their foes, with the result of being 

 certainly caught and pulled to ])ieces. Many of the spiders 

 would escape by hanging suspended by a thread of silk from 

 the branches, safe from the foes that swarmed both above 

 and below."— P. 18. 



Leaf-cutting Ants. — " Nearly all travellers in tropical 

 America have described the ravages of the leaf-cutting ants 

 (Q^^codoma) : their crowded, well-worn paths through the 

 forests; their ceaseless pertinacity in the spoliation of the 

 trees, more particularly of introduced species, which are left 

 bare and ragged, with the midribs and a few jagged points of 

 the leaves only left. After travelling for some hundreds of 

 yards, often for more than half a mile, the formicarium is 

 reached. It consists of low, wide mounds of brown, clayey- 

 looking earth, above and immediately around which the 

 bushes have been killed by their buds and leaves having 

 been persistently bitten off as they attempted to grow after 

 their first defoliation. Under high trees in the thick forest 

 the ants do not make their nests, because I believe the 

 ventilation of their under-ground galleries, about which they 

 are very particular, would be interfered with, and perhaps to 

 avoid the drip from the trees. It is on the outskirts of the 

 forest, or around clearings, or near wide roads that let in the 

 sun, that these forraicariums are generally found : numerous 



