Melastome and their Ants 173 
and in a third pupe, all lying loosely. In another cell, by 
itself, a queen ant will be found, surrounded by walls made of 
a brown waxy-looking substance, along with about a dozen 
Coccide to supply her with food. I suppose the eggs are 
removed as soon as laid, for I never found any along with the 
queen-ant. If the tree be shaken, the ants rush out in 
myriads, and search about for the molester. This case is not 
like the last one, where the tree has provided food and shelter 
for the ants, but rather one where the ant has taken posses- 
sion of the tree, and brought with it the Coccide; but I 
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EA AY 
a UNITE 
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LEAF OF MELASTOMA 
believe that its presence must be beneficial. I have cut into 
some dozens of the Cecropia trees, and never could find one 
that was not tenanted by ants. I noticed three different 
species, all, as far as I know, confined to the Cecropie, and 
all farming scale-insects. As in the bull’s-horn thorn, there 
is never more than one species of ant on the same tree. 
In some species of Melastome there is a direct provision of 
houses for the ants. In each leaf, at the base of the laminz, 
the petiole, or stalk, is furnished with a couple of pouches, 
divided from each other by the mid-rib, as shown in the 
figure. Into each of these pouches there is an entrance from 
the lower side of the leaf. I noticed them first in Northern 
Brazil, in the province of Maranham; and afterwards at 
