306 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,. 1911. 



THE TRUE ANTS. 

 ABUNDANCE. 



Although ants are not everywhere equally abundant in tropical 

 South America, their numbers are so large on an average as to 

 promptly attract the attention of travelers, even when they do not 

 excite their wonder. Residents, who might be expected to have con- 

 servative views on the subject, often speak of them as the owners of 

 the land. Such a remark is at first regarded as merely facetious, but 

 the character of some of the writers who make it entitles it to serious 

 consideration. As long ago as 1648 Piso said that the Portuguese not 

 inappropriately called the ant the "king of Brazil." * 



Another naturalist who spent some time in the country says, 

 "Brazil is one great ants' nest." 2 Belt says, "They are one of the 

 greatest scourges of tropical America." 3 



A Brazilian traveler says of the region of the upper Rio, Paraguay, 

 "The ant and the different kinds of termites own the land." 4 

 Another puts it in this fashion: ". . . ants . . . deserve to 

 be considered the actual owners of the Amazon Valley far more than 

 the red or the white man." 5 



These characterizations and others that might be given are so 

 sweeping that, taken alone, they are open to the suspicion of being 

 merely picturesque and extravagant ebullitions rather than serious 

 statements of fact. If they are based on some knowledge of the ants, 

 these expressions seem to spring from more or less personal animosity 

 toward those insects. And yet this very animosity, if it really exists, 

 must come from a pretty uniform personal experience of them. Dr. 

 Auguste Forel says that "the ant fauna of South America is perhaps 

 the richest in the world from the systematic point of view." 6 In the 

 book cited 440 species of true ants are noted as inhabiting Brazil, out 

 of a total of 2,000 known in the world. 



But though it is with the number of individuals rather .than the 

 number of species that we are concerned, it is worth remembering that 

 in many considerable regions a single species may occupy about all the 

 ground space that it is possible for ants to occupy. A single species 

 may thus fairly swarm and do a vast deal more work than several 

 different species. 



The true ants, evidently of a large number of species, are so 

 abundant and are such serious pests in some places that the land is 



i Formicae antem has (Rey do Brasil Lusitanis non immerito dictse, quod perpetuam tyrannidem exer- 

 ceant) aliquse Europsearum plane similes, aliquae triplo majores & alatee, omnivorse sunt. 

 De Aeribus, Aquis, & Locis. Gvilielmi Pisonis Historiae Naturalis & Medicae, p. 9. Amsterdam, 1658. 

 1 Rev. H. Clark: Letters home from Spain, etc., pp. 131, 173. London, 1867. 

 » Thomas Belt: The naturalist in Nicaragua, p. 79. London, 1874. 



« Dr. Joao Severiano da Fonseca. Viagem ao redor do Brazil, vol. 1, p. 352. Rio de Janeiro, 1880. 

 * Richard Spruce: Notes of a botanist on the Amazon and Andes, vol. 2, p. 366. London, 1908. 

 •A. Forel: A fauna das formigas do Brazil. Bol. do Museu Paraense, vol. 1, p. 89. Para, 1895. 



