MEXICAN HYMENOPTERA. 41 



rocks, and are tunneled more often at the foot of, and among, the roots 

 of old trees. The earth, or the fragments of wood, which the ants 

 cast out, sometimes forms a dome above, but at times only an irregular 

 opening indicates the existence of a colony.* 



The extraction of one such nest, beside the difficulty of penetrating 

 to the centre through the entangled roots of the tree, is not an easy 

 thing, for at the first alarm, the soldados sally forth in myriads and 

 attack the aggressor with fury. 



Beside the changes of domicile, which are so generally in relation 

 with the atmospheric variation as to serve as a rule to the inhabitants 

 of the country, the Eciton devotes itself every season to excursions for 

 pillage, destined to supply the larvae with nourishment. Nothing is 

 more curious than these battues executed by an entire population. 

 Over an extent of many square metres, the soil literally disappears 

 under the agglomeration of these little black bodies. f No apparent 

 order roigiis in the mass of the army, but behind this many lines or 

 columns of laggai'ds press on to rejoin it. The insects concealed under 

 the dry leaves and the trunks of fallen trees, fly on all sides before 

 this phalanx of pitiless hunters, but, blinded by their fright, they fall 

 back among their persecutors and are seized and despatched in the 

 twinkling of an eye. Grrasshoppers, in spite of the advantage given 

 them by their power of leaping, hardly escape any more easily. As 

 soon as they are taken, the Eciton tears off the hinder feet and all re- 

 sistance becomes useless.^ 



If some heap of dry leaves, some tree or bush presents itself upon 

 the path of the columns, a party of hunters separates itself from the 

 mass of the army and, after having ransacked it in every part, retakes 

 its place in the advanced guard. I have observed, sometimes, that 

 little flies, of the family of Syrphides, follow, flying above them, the 

 column of Eciton, but cannot give any account of the evolutions of these 

 Diptera. 



* This refers to the habitations of the species No. 4 and .36, which are the only 

 ones I have been able to meet. 



t Yet referring to Nos. 4 and 36. 



% Grasshoppers, spiders and roaches form the favorite game of the tepegitas ,- 

 the larvae of most species of little Blattides of the genus Anaplecta, the Ischnoptcra 

 itc, abound under the dry leaves in sliady places and furnish them an easy 

 prey. 



TRANS. AMKR. JENT. SuC. ( 6 ) JUNK, tS6S. 



