Chap. XL THE BARK ANT. 223 



Bark Ant. — Another much smaller species of white 

 ant is found under pieces of loose dry bark on the 

 forest trees, on which they feed. The colonies were 

 composed of a yqtj scanty number of individuals, 

 and the ants were so small and obscure that it was 

 not easy to detect them. They always choose trees 

 that a.re old and have these scales of loose bark on 

 their trunks from place to place. It is under these 

 small patches or scales that the ants live. They feed 

 on the wood, and build covered ways, or rather 

 tunnels, which start from the ground and communi- 

 cate to the different places where the colony has 

 scattered itself. Now and then, scraping under the 

 bark, I found that the settlement had moved some- 

 where else as soon as they had come to the green of 

 the tree. The material which this ant uses to build 

 its tunnels is not earth, but wood-dust. This proves 

 clearly that these white ants, with, perhaps, the ex- 

 ception of one species, build their nests of the same 

 material as they eat, but not till after it has passed 

 through their stomachs, and received an admixture 

 of glutinous fluid. The quantity thrown by this 

 little species was so minute that I could hardly have 

 seen it with the naked eye. They worked exactly 

 like the others I have just described. I was unable 

 to recognise the three distinct classes of individuals. 

 There seemed to be only two sets — soldiers and 

 workers. They worked very slowly when joining 

 the broken portions of the tunnels I had demolished. 

 This was accounted for by the extreme smallness of 

 the particles of material ejected by them, and also by 

 the fact that, in consequence of the tunnel being 



