230 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
see Kirby, in Zrans. Ent. Soc. vol.i. p. xxv.); their singularly con- 
structed tracts ; their great perseverance and strength *; their repose, 
and diversions during their moments of relaxation, &c.: whilst in the 
first volume of the Zntroduction we find numerous notices of the inju- 
ries which they occasionally commit ; the devotion and behaviour of 
the neuters to the eggs, larvee, and pupe, and the various modes of 
formation of the nests, are also therein fully described. 
The exotic species, it is true, although affording many singular 
forms, have been but slightly studied in respect to their habits; in- 
deed, on the contrary, much evidently fabulous matter has been pub- 
lished respecting them. 
Some of these exotic species are of a comparatively large size, ex- 
ceeding an inch in length; and the forms of many of them are exceed- 
ingly singular, some having an enormously large head; others have ; 
the jaws disproportionately long ; in some the thorax is armed with 
numerous spines, whilst in others this part of the body and the pe- 
duncle of the abdomen are composed of a series of elongated knots. 
The species of these insects inhabiting the tropical parts of the 
world are not only larger, but far more numerous, both in the num- 
ber of species and of individuals, than those of our countries. This is 
especially the case in the vast elevated plains in the interior of South 
America, where the largest of the species of birds and Mammalia which 
subsist entirely upon ants, such as the Myrmecophaga jubata, Dasypus 
giganteus, destroy them in inconceivable numbers. M. Lund, indeed, 
supposes that in these climates, from their great agency in removing 
obnoxious matter, they become the representatives of various other 
families of insects, such as the Carabidz, Necrophaga, and other car- 
nivorous species, which are but rarely met with. Indeed, the inha- 
bitants of Rio Janeiro sometimes even introduce them into their 
dwellings, in order to rid them of the visits of the Cupion, as the Ter- 
mitide are named, considering that there is a natural antipathy be- 
tween these two tribes. M. Lund, however, mentions an instance in 
* The pertinacity of these insects, in their attacks upon others many times exceeding 
them in size, is extraordinary. I have often seen large preserved beetles, &c., to 
which a minute ant was attached by its jaws, having chosen to die rather than let 
go its hold. In this manner Formica elongata Oliv. seizes, “et d’une maniére 
opiniatre,” the antenne and legs of a green Melolontha of Tranquebar, and I have 
myself captured a bee on the wing, to the extremity of one of the tarsi of which 
the head alone of an ant remained fixed by the jaws, the body of the ant haying 
evidently been torn off, without the insect quitting its hold. W. W. Saunders has 
met with a similar instance, 
