Proceedings 7 
Closely related to the Slave-maker, is our common Wood 
Ant, or Horse Ant, Hormica rufa, which forms large nests 
of small sticks, leaves, pine needles, &c., often five or six 
feet in diameter. It has no sting but knows how to make 
good use of its jaws. 
One of the most interesting of the exotic Ants is the 
Mexican Honey Ant, a species of Myrmecocystus, a genus 
which is also found in the south of Europe. In this Ant 
there are two forms of the worker, a small ordinary look- 
ing form, and another, larger, and with the abdomen much 
inflated and almost transparent. The use of these pecu- 
liar looking individuals seems to be to secrete honey for 
the use of the community. There is also an Australian 
species of Honey Ant, certain individuals of which become 
so distended, as to be merely animated honey-pots. 
The Sauda, or Leaf-cutting Ant, is a Brazilian species, 
living in very large communities. They are very destruct- 
ive to foliage, and prefer cultivated trees, such as the cof- 
fee, or the orange. Swarming over the branches, they cut 
off pieces of leaf about the size of a sixpence, and carry 
them off to their subterranean dwellings. The use they 
make of these leaves seems still open to doubt, some ob- 
servers, as for instance, Belt, in his “Naturalist in Nicar- 
agua,” being of opinion that they are stored for the sake 
of the fungi which grow abundantly on them; whilst 
others, like Bates, in his “Naturalist on the Amazons,” 
think that they are used only for thatching purposes. Pro- 
bably the latter use is that for which the leaves are intend- 
ed, though they also use, as food, the fungi which grow 
on them. 
Leaving the Ants we now come to a group of insects of 
very diverse habits. 
These are the Fossorial Hymenoptera, popularly known 
as Sand Wasps, from the yellow and black colouring of 
some of the most striking species. 
The first family of these insects, the MMJwtillide, are 
often known as Solitary Ants. Their habits are, as yet, 
but imperfectly known, though it is very probable that all 
