Ants and Mites 



the top of the internode, and the ants gnaw an opening 

 for themselves at this spot. 



In Malaya there are two species of ferns (Polypodium) 

 which grow on tree branches. Their stems or rhizomes, 

 which are large and fleshy, are traversed by irregular 

 winding passages in which live multitudes of ants. Now 

 when this fern is grown so that no ants can reach it, it 

 is said still to form such passages, though by no means 

 on so extensive a scale. In Malaya the galleries are 

 partly excavated by the ants themselves.^ 



It is probably for the sake of ants that one finds, out- 

 side the flowers, honey-glands or nectaries in many of 

 our English plants (Vicia stipules, &c.).^ In one of the 

 rubber trees (Hevea) such nectaries occur in the bud- 

 scales, so that, when the buds are unfolding and the 

 foliage is still young and tender, ants come and swarm 

 about the buds. But as soon as the leaves are fully 

 formed, two honey-glands at the base of each leaf con- 

 tinue to keep these formidable insects busy and always 

 running over the foliage.^ 



One might say that it is ants' inhumanity to ants that 

 makes countless thousands mourn, for it is other insects 

 of their own kind that these fierce bodyguards are in- 

 tended to keep away. 



The worst are those curious, leaf-cutting forms which 

 every South American plantation-owner knows far too 

 well. An army of them will at once proceed to his 

 cocoa plantation ; each insect will then solemnly and 

 slowly cut out a neat circle of leaf substance. They 

 stand on the leaf and cut round, keeping on the centre 

 of the circle, which is said to be almost as exact as if 

 made with a pair of compasses. They will then form a 

 procession towards home, holding the circle of leaf like 

 an umbrella over their heads. 



Now comes, however, the really astonishing part of 



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