HYMENOPTEKA. 181 



" (Ecodoma cephalotes is the common species of the genus ; 

 it is abundant in light soils, and especially cultivated grounds. 

 Its formicaria are very extensive and wholly subterraneous, the 

 site being marked on the surface of the ground only by a mound 

 of little elevation formed of earth, generally lighter in colour 

 than the surrounding soil, raised in little ridges and turrets. The 

 space occupied by the mound is always cleared of foliage ; the 

 entrances appear to be at a distance from the mounds, and con- 

 sequently there must be a system of subterranean highways. 

 The CEcodomce appear to be exclusively herbivorous, and, like 

 the Cryptoceri, have no stings ; what they do with the immense 

 amount of cut leaves they are perpetually conveying to their 

 abode it is impossible to divine. Probably they prepare food 

 for the larvae from the leaves ; but besides leaves and fruits, in- 

 dividuals in the processions may be frequently seen conveying 

 dried twigs and leaves, and in rare instances, dried fragments of 

 insects ; what they especially delight in is the dried grain of the 

 Mandiocca meal, the general food of the inhabitants of this 

 country. This insect, from its ubiquity, immense numbers, 

 eternal industry, and its plundering propensities, becomes one of 

 the most important animals in Brazil ; its immense hosts are 

 unceasingly occupied in defoliating trees, and those most relished 

 by them are precisely the useful and cultivated kinds ; they have 

 regular divisions of labourers : numbers mount the trees and cut 

 off the leaves in irregularly rounded pieces about the size of a 

 shilling, another relay of labourers carry them off as they fall ; 

 sometimes these latter get behindhand with their work, and the 

 fallen pieces accumulate to a great heap; such heaps used to 

 puzzle me when I met with them on first arriving in this country. 

 1 had thought (Ecodoma exclusively herbivorous, but I on one 

 occasion surprised one dragging off the dead body of a fine 

 Lamia nearly an inch long." 



The following remarks apply to the workers of the species 

 which appears to be the (Ecodoma cephalotes of authors ; they 

 certainly apply to that species of this catalogue : 



" I send you all the different sizes of this species taken from 

 the formicarium. The medium-sized individuals were occupied 

 in cutting pieces of leaf of the size of a sixpence. The minute 

 individuals were few in number at the leaf-cutting operations, 

 but were in vast numbers about the entrance to the dome of the 

 formicarium : the very large-headed ones were not engaged in 

 leaf-cutting, nor were they to be seen in the processions ; they 

 were only to be seen on disturbing the nest. 



" I had observed during several months the workers of this 

 species, at a place in the forest, occupied in cutting pieces of the 

 foliage of trees, and always crossing the pathway in the same 



